The World Meteorological Organisation reports above-average temperature rise across Europe. Temperatures in Europe have risen more than twice as fast as the global average over the past 30 years. This was reported by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Geneva on Wednesday, one week before the UN climate summit in Egypt starting on 7 November.

Together with the European Earth observation system Copernicus, it presented the State of Climate in Europe report. The WMO noted that between 1991 and 2021, temperatures in Europe rose by an average of 0.5 degrees per decade. Not yet factored in is the still-ongoing year 2022, which — given the warmest October on record in parts of Europe — could make the statistics even worse.

Meltwater flushes pollutants into lakes

The higher northern latitudes and Europe's fringes bordering the Arctic are warming rapidly, the WMO reports. The Greenland ice sheet is melting, accelerating sea level rise. In the summer of 2021, rain instead of snow was recorded for the first time since measurements began in the 1980s at its highest point at just over 3,200 metres.

Meltwater is also carrying increasing amounts of pollutants into remote Arctic lakes. As demonstrated by the Austrian-Canadian research project "High-Arctic", the rapid regional warming is causing environmental toxins — such as polybrominated flame retardants deposited on glaciers over decades — to enter waterways.

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