Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and the impacts of climate change here are clear. 2024 was the warmest year on record for Europe, with record temperatures in central, eastern and southeastern regions. Storms were often severe and flooding widespread, claiming at least 335 lives and affecting an estimated 413,000 people.
During the year, there was a striking east-west contrast in climate conditions, with extremely dry and often record-warm conditions in the east, and warm but wet conditions in the west. The European State of the Climate 2024 (ESOTC 2024) report, released on 15 April 2025 by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), involves around 100 scientific contributors providing holistic yet concise insights into Europe’s climate.
C3S is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission. Since 2018, the service has released the ESOTC, a detailed analysis of Europe's climate for the previous year, going beyond annual temperature with analyses of a wide range of climate variables, from heat and cold stress to sunshine duration and cloudiness, from wildfires to glaciers and much more. The report - the European State of the Climate 2024 - also revealed that last year saw a record-breaking rise in "tropical nights", when the minimum daily temperature does not drop below 20C.
Despite the exotic-sounding name, tropical nights can cause serious health problems, especially for children and the elderly, and have become increasingly common in south-eastern Europe. Heat stress days and tropical nights are increasing in Europe – 2024 saw the second-highest number of heat stress days and tropical nights on record; averaged over Europe, this meant nearly a month of at least ‘strong heat stress’ and around 12 tropical nights, with variations across the continent and southeastern Europe in particular seeing record-breaking numbers of both.
Heat can put the body under stress, influenced not only by temperature but also by other environmental factors such as wind and humidity. High nighttime temperatures can also affect health, offering little respite from daytime heat stress.
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Isn't "climate change" a deep state conspiracy? No evidence of anything like that (despite all evidence to the contrary). Besides, there's lots of money to be made in oil and coal. We all need money, right?