Enlarge image
Heat in Rome (on July 30th): In large parts of Europe, the month was hotter than average.
Photo: Cecilia Fabiano / LaPresse / ZUMA Press / dpa
July is mostly hot.
But since the data has been collected, it has only been hotter in Europe than this year.
This was announced by the European climate change service Copernicus.
Over large parts of northern, eastern and south-eastern Europe, July 2021 was significantly warmer than the average.
Especially in the east of the continent, heat waves have been measured, between the Baltic States and the eastern Mediterranean.
The heat wave at the end of the month in south-eastern Europe was particularly severe.
Since records began, it was only hotter across Europe in July 2010.
At that time, among other things, an extreme heat wave hit western Russia.
The German record was held in July 2019. At that time, the highest temperature ever recorded in Germany was reached: 41.6 degrees Celsius, measured in North Rhine-Westphalia.
This July ranks third worldwide
Worldwide, July 2021 holds third place on the list of heat records: The temperatures - and, by the way, also those of the previous month - were just below the values of 2016 and 2019.
The heat was also noticeable in northern areas this year: In Northern Ireland, the previous record for the maximum daily temperature was broken, and temperatures were well above average over eastern Iceland and parts of eastern Greenland.
Conversely, the month in a zone that stretched from Portugal to Germany was slightly colder than the average for the years 1991 to 2020.
The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service produces monthly reports on air temperature, sea ice and the water cycle.
It is based on model calculations, but above all on measurement data from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
vki / dpa