PARIS - Western Europe in 2026 experienced its hottest June on record as a searing heatwave swept across a continent facing increasingly frequent and intense heat extremes, the EU’s climate monitor said on July 9.

The report comes as a new heatwave is battering Europe this week, following a record-breaking one in June and an unusually early spring hot spell in May.

The average temperature in western Europe reached 20.74 deg C in June, more than 3 deg C above the 1991-2020 norm, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

It broke the region’s previous record set in June 2025.

“We will see more heatwaves in a warmer world,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.

“They will be more intense and they will last longer, and they will impact more geographical areas,” Burgess told AFP.

It was the second hottest June on record for the world and for Europe as a whole, Copernicus said, as human-induced climate change continues to push temperatures higher.

Global temperatures in June were 1.39 deg C above the estimated pre-industrial average, a period covering 1850-1900, according to Copernicus.

The world’s oceans experienced their highest June temperatures on record, against a backdrop of the warming El Nino weather pattern which is developing and is forecast to strengthen in the tropical Pacific.

“We’re at a transition point w...