Europe’s climate is heating faster than any other

2024 was the world’s hottest year on record, and Europe is the continent warming the fastest. Extreme events ravaged Europe last year, including floods, wildfires and storms that claimed hundreds of lives and impacted many thousands more.

To find out more, I spoke to Julien Nicolas, a co-author of the European State of the Climate Report, a huge undertaking that was put together by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting on behalf of the Copernicus Climate Change Service and World Meteorological Organisation.

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Contents

00:00 – Smokin’ hot Europeans
00:24 – State of the European Climate Report
01:15 - Headlines
02:27 – Extremes
04:16 – Polar impacts
07:50 – Global context
08:54 – Future change
10:02 - What to do
10:56 - Thanks

#ClimateChange #ESOTC2024 #ECMWF #CopernicusClimate #WMO

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Thanks to Julien Nicolas and C3S for their time.

Special thanks to my Patreon subscribers, including my Patreon Saints: Steven Cowling, Eliot Bryant, Baerbel Winkler, Patrick Hillberg, Michael Unterweger, James Harley Gorrell & Gary Stark. You all rock ♥️

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References

All figures included courtesy of Copernicus Climate Change Service, unless otherwise stated.

Key takeaways:

Other references:

[jamesgrover]

West Netherlands, I've got about 1 thousand litre rain storage for the garden, which is now empty, I don't remember ever having this kind of start to a year

[Beckford]

I'm from Czechia, we had the longest streak of tropical days on record (6 weeks over 30c) in 2024 and when it broke, in the 2nd week of September, we had massive floods.

[a.randomjack]

And this... "Wealth is addictive, the rich will eventually destroy society" -Socrates and friends (summarized)
It's a topic worth looking into

[andredeketeleastutecomplex]

As a homeless guy I would like it to be a bit warmer. In any case the heating isn't my fault, I was always a minimalist. I blame people who want to keep all luxury, and who refuses to share resources.

[filippoleombruno]

Here in South Australia, the night time temp is what the day time temp should be, 34 degrees in middle of autumn, no rain for 5 months

[ClimateAdam]

Thanks so much for covering this! In other news: excellent new hair.

[austinchamp]

Thankyou, it’s all so scary and even down south in Australia we are feeling it. Farmers here are planting in the dust, hoping for rain. Meanwhile up north there are huge floods. I’m wondering if all the inland rain we have had will pause sea level rise for a bit as the water goes to our huge, often dry inland lake. Thanks again, love your videos.

[puravidadew]

Just a couple of days ago in La Paz, Baja California south, the temperature was 105°F. Today it only reached 100°, And this is considered spring.

[zentouro]

dang, i love a good video about a big report!

[FrancisFjordCupola]

2024 was so wet it didn't _feel_ like an extremely hot year. More like the cold took a sabbatical. I doubt we'd see it any time soon, but I hope we can get over all the politics. There should be one single objective to reduce emissions.

[jubmelahtes]

I live in the Arctic and honestly its been scary to see how warm this winter have been, our grass started to get green in early February. Sure weve got some snow but compared to in my childhood (I'm 26) we've bearley got any. most of all its just been raining a lot, I had electricity bills at at most €5 per month due to the full magazines,

[olavsantiago]

In 2024 Finland had that coldwave that you might have seen on the news, but by May it experienced a heatwave, with some regions having a heatwave lasting more than 60 days. I did comment on a previous video about rain in December, not just an anecdote, but looking at the data in real-time, as Lapland had warm weather and rain till New Year's Eve.

2025 will have some interesting data, as Finnish Lapland had a very warm winter, I would consider it a "winter heatwave" with +6'C recorded 07/02/2025, and temperatures being a lot warmer than average.

The chart for sea surface temperatures that excluded sea ice interested me, as sea ice cover has been reducing in the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia, and this winter the ice has been thin and weaker compared with previous winters due to increased amount of rain and warmer sea temperatures (though in the north of Gulf of Bothnia the "sea" is more like a freshwater/brackish water lake)

[bobiboulon]

And here I was, glad that we got more rain those last years in France, because it meant less drought and better phreatic zone levels...

[ferret]

I believe we have passed the tipping point and are now just along for the ride, we really have messed up our planet but we can and must persevere to mitigate the damage as best we can.

[charlesvane]

2024, the hottest year humanity has ever experienced, one of the coldest years of the rest of our lives.

[mafarmerga]

For the past 700, 000 years the average rate of CO2 change in the atmosphere is 2ppm/1000 years
The current rate of CO2 change is more than 2ppm/year.
A one THOUSAND fold difference.
It's like driving a car 100, 000 kph and thinking that nothing bad is going to happen.

[sarahb.]

It's been really cold here. The daytime high was only 42 and this morning it was still in the 30s. I had to wear my winter gloves almost all day while I was out because my hands were freezing without them.. it's the middle of April and people are still wearing the winter coats. I know I still am. Winter hat too. There are a few spring flowers blooming (tulips, daffodils and those tiny purple flowers that come out in early spring) but the trees are still bare. Not a leaf in sight yet. Some grass is starting to turn green... Tonight is supposed to be in the 30s again.. for anyone not familiar with F 32 F is freezing. But it's cold here in the States, by Lake Michigan...

[martiansoon]

Globally 2024 1.60C (Copernicus), 21 months out of 22 have been above 1.5C line... Even La Nina is not cooling and La Nina might even dissipate early...

Our climate has started to go off rails from last 10 000 years (when we have had agriculture). And its warming faster than EVER. (0.36C per decade and rising, Hansen)

And still our emissions are worst ever. Trump even tries to find his lost coal mines and plants...

Even Taalas is now talking about 2.0C as coming physical realism.

Climate science added with some realism says 2C cannot be reached without a drastic revolution in all countries. 3-5C is way more likely and way more deadly alternative.

We are seeing crops failing due to heat, droughts, flooding, wildfires, ... Ie. Cocoa, coffee, olive oil, ... prices are high due to climate change. Even grains are getting impact on climate driven higher prices. This is only getting worse.

[robbob]

I was watching an interview with the actor Jean Smart on Jimmy Kimmel, and she was saying how surprised she was at how warm the Caribbean waters were. I was disappointed they didn't mention global heating

[alanhat]

"Captain Tango & his Fascî§t robot" would be hilarious if it wasn't real 😢