Why Europe is the fastest-warming continent

Much of Western Europe is suffering through an intense spring heat wave, with unusually hot temperatures from the UK and Ireland in the north, through Germany and France and all the way down into Spain and Italy.

The unseasonable spring weather is the result of a "heat dome." This strong, slow-moving high-pressure atmospheric system from northern Africa is trapping hot air over Europe, much like a lid on a boiling pot of water.

Such weather systems have become more common in Europe over the 25 years, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, fueling more frequent and extreme heat waves.

Why Europe is already experiencing record heat waves

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"Temperatures on this scale were once exceptional even at the height of summer," said Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, in a statement. "This record-breaking heat has the fingerprints of climate change all over it."

Europe warming twice as fast

It's too soon to know how much this latest extreme heat event was supercharged by the greenhouse effect from fossil fuel emissions. 

But previous analyses of more than half a dozen heat waves in Europe since 2003 conducted by climate scientists at the UK-based World Weather Attribution, which Otto co-founded, show the extreme weather was "much more likely and more intense due to human-induced climate change."

The latest European State of the Climate report, released in April, noted that at least 95% of the continent experienced above-average annual temperatures in 2025. Intense heat waves above 30 Celsius were felt as far north as the Arctic Circle, and sea surface temperature was the "highest on record."

"Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and the impacts are already severe," said Florian Pappenberger, head of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, one of the agencies behind the report.

In fact, Europe is heating twice as fast as the global average. The average temperature has risen by 2.5 Celsius (4.3 Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial levels of the late 19th century. Worldwide, analysts have recorded an average increase of 1.4 Celsius.

Why is it getting this hot?

That accelerated warming is due, in part, to location. Europe is connected to the Arctic, the only other place in the world that is warming even faster.

The average temperature increase up around the North Pole has already exceeded 3.3 C, according to data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. In part because the darker, ice-free Arctic Ocean absorbs more sunlight than ice, which reflects it.

That process, known as the albedo effect, is also in play across Europe. Areas of the continent that were once frozen year-round or late into the summer, such as the high-altitude regions of the Alps, are now increasingly snow-free. With the darker ground reflecting less solar radiation back into space, warming has accelerated.

Wavering winds shifting weather patterns

Scientists have also linked warming in Europe to the shifting winds of the jet stream, the high-altitude river of wind flowing toward Europe from the west. Those once-relatively stable winds have also been disrupted by climate change, leading to more extreme weather patterns that tend to linger.

A 2022 study led by Efi Rousi, then a postdoctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, found that periods when the jet stream splits into two branches have also increased. This results in more heat waves across Europe — especially in the west.

"In this region, which coincides with the exit of the storm track coming from the North Atlantic towards Europe, weather systems normally originate from the Atlantic and therefore have a cooling effect," Rousi said in a statement at the time. "During double jet states the weather systems get diverted northwards and persistent heatwaves can develop over western Europe."

Cleaner air warming the planet

Paradoxically, efforts to tackle another environmental problem appear to have contributed to increased warming in Europe. The 2025 European State of the Climate report pointed out that stricter air quality regulations since the 1980s have reduced air pollution but are now responsible for warmer temperatures.

Before clean air rules came into effect, the tiny, airborne reflective sulfate and nitrate particles from car exhaust and factory smokestacks indirectly helped to cool the continent by reflecting sunlight, and "partially offset the warming caused by increased greenhouse gases."

Climate scientists have stressed, however, that this doesn't mean the world should abandon efforts to reduce emissions.

The need to keep warming to a minimum was highlighted in a new report released Thursday by the UN's World Meteorological Agency and the UK's Met Office. The study forecasts near-record average global temperatures levels in the next five years, saying it is "likely" the world will see a new hottest-ever year before 2031.

"The task ahead is clear," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this month, calling for efforts to minimize temperature rise to "build a safer, fairer, and more resilient future for all." 

Last week, the UN voted to continue supporting a "rapid, just, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels." Meanwhile, the rapid rollout of renewable energy since 2000 has already shifted warming trends away from the worst-case scenario. 

Edited by: Tamsin Walker