The world recorded its second-hottest May on record, while Europe endured an unusually early heatwave as climate extremes increasingly become the “new normal” on the continent, the EU’s climate monitoring service said on Wednesday.
Records were broken in Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal last month as a “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures far above normal across western Europe.
“The month was marked by a rapid transition from much cooler-than-average conditions to one of the most intense heatwaves ever observed this early in the year in western Europe,” the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its May bulletin.
Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus, said the “unusually early and intense heatwave” shows how quickly climate extremes are becoming the new normal rather than the exception.
Copernicus said “feels-like” temperatures reached between 35C and 40C across large parts of Europe.
It added that the rapid shift likely increased impacts on populations, leaving little time for people, crops and ecosystems during the growing season to adapt to higher temperatures.
Globally, the average surface air temperature reached 15.81C, making it the second-highest for May, just behind May 2024, according to Copernicus.
Sea surface temperatures also ranked second highest on record after May 2024, as global conditions move closer towards the warming El Niño weather pattern.
Forecasts suggest the upcoming El Niño could become one of the strongest on record, potentially pushing global temperatures to historic highs by 2027.
Copernicus said temperatures remained at “exceptionally high levels” across much of the tropical Pacific.
The World Meteorological Organization has said there is an 80 percent chance of El Niño developing between June and August, raising the risk of extreme weather events.
The previous El Niño contributed to 2023 becoming the second-hottest year on record, while 2024 remains the hottest year to date.
