Last month was the hottest March on record in Europe, new data has found – surpassing the average by some margin.
And that raises the risk, for now, of wildfires this summer, campaigners have warned.
The average air temperature across the continent was a significant 2.41C above the recent average for March (1991-2020), according to new figures from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
That figure may not sound like much, but as it is an average figure, it smooths out the extremes, meaning it will have been much higher in some places.
Eastern Europe and southwest Russia in particular saw the mercury soar.
A heat map released alongside the data paints most of Europe in dark orange and red to signify just how high the heat was above average.
Last week the UK’s Met Office found England had its sunniest March on records going back to 1920.
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The total of 185.8 hours of sunshine smashed the previous record from 1929 by more than 14 hours. The outstanding hot and dry conditions fuelled multiple wildfires by drying out plants and trees.
And this week temperatures of above 20C (68F) are set to return, following the hottest day of the year so far on Friday.
But when it comes to rainfall, March was a month of two extremes in Europe, Copernicus found.
It was drier than average in the UK and Ireland, and in a big area from central Europe to Greece and Turkey – shown in dark brown on a second map that illustrates wet versus dry conditions.
Not so over Spain and Portugal, where a series of storms brought widespread floods, forcing some from their homes but refilling reservoirs parched in last year’s drought.
While some parts of Europe had their driest March on record, elsewhere it was the wettest in at least the past 47 years.
Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs Copernicus, said the new data is “highlighting once again how temperatures are continuing to break records”.
United Nations scientists say it is “unequivocal” that humans are warming the planet, which drives up average temperatures as well as extreme heatwaves.
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That’s because activities like burning fossil fuels release greenhouse gases that trap heat around the Earth.
Rebecca Newsom from Greenpeace warned hot and dry weather could fuel the conditions for intense wildfires this summer.
“As early spring weather starts to feel more and more like summer, Europe is potentially on track to face ever harsher heat waves and wildfires later in the year.
“The past month’s contrasting rainfall extremes across the European region alone pose an immediate challenge to our food systems and to the economy as a whole.
“Europe’s citizens must not be left alone to pay for the chaos that dirty energy companies are fuelling.”
She called for new taxes on oil majors to help communities cope with climate disasters.
