"We observed the longest heatwave in southeastern Europe and record glacier mass loss in Scandinavia and Svalbard," says Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's climate monitoring service C3S.
He confirms that 2024 was the warmest year ever recorded in Europe.
Especially in eastern Europe, temperatures were exceptionally high. Several flood disasters were triggered by unusually large amounts of rainfall further west and centrally on the continent.
Global heatwave
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2024 was also the warmest year ever recorded globally, according to C3S and other research groups.
The global heat record was broken for the second year in a row.
In addition to the gradual, human-caused global warming, the weather phenomenon El Niño contributed to the temperature jumps in 2023 and 2024.
The warming is causing glaciers to melt all over the world, and the melting is especially fast in Norway and Svalbard.
The glaciers in Scandinavia and Svalbard experienced the largest mass loss of all the world's glacier regions last year, according to C3S. On average, the glaciers became 1.8 metres thinner in Scandinavia and 2.7 metres thinner on Svalbard.
On Svalbard, a new summer heat record was set for the third year in a row. The Norwegian archipelago is one of the areas in the world where warming is happening the fastest.
Hundreds dead
When the air gets warmer, it can hold more moisture. This can lead to heavier rainfall when it does rain.
Severe rainfall led to several flood disasters in Europe last autumn. Parts of Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Italy were affected by flooding caused by the extreme weather event Boris.
Entire towns were submerged, and in total, more than 20 people died.
At the end of October, Valencia and other areas in Spain were severely affected. More than 230 people died in a violent flood, triggered by torrential downpour with the highest amount of rainfall ever recorded in Spain within a single hour.
The cost of the damage created by the huge flood in Spain has been estimated to be over USD 9 billion.
Great contrasts
Overall, the floods in Europe last year were the most extensive in over a decade, according to the new report from C3S and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
In nearly a third of Europe's waterways, water levels rose to levels defined as 'major flood'.
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413,000 Europeans were affected by flooding and severe weather, according to the estimates in the report. In total, at least 335 people died.
At the same time, other parts of the continent were hit by drought and extreme heatwaves.
"2024 was also a year of marked climate contrasts between eastern and western Europe," says Buontempo.
A heatwave in southeast Europe in July lasted for 13 days. This was the longest heatwave ever recorded in that area.
Record heat in northern Norway
In addition to eastern Europe, large parts of Italy, Greece, Germany, and northern Norway also experienced extremely high temperatures.
In both Norway and Norrbotten, Sweden, glaciers melted at record speed.
"We've never seen similar figures for glacier melting in northern Norway. This year's deficit is much higher than we've previously measured on these glaciers," researcher Liss Andreassen from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) said in a statement last autumn (link in Norwegian).
The glaciers in the Alps also continued to melt, according to the new report on the state of Europe’s climate.
Increasing renewable energy
Since emissions from fossil energy contribute to warming the planet, most countries aim to invest more heavily in low-emission energy sources.
In Europe, it was not just the temperatures that were record-high last year – the production of renewable energy also reached a new peak.
Renewable energy sources accounted for 45 per cent of the continent's electricity production, according to the new report.
However, global emissions continue to rise, and the report emphasises the need for adaptation to climate change.
"Adaptation is a must," states WMO chief Celeste Saulo.
Since 2018, the share of European cities with their own climate adaptation plans has almost doubled. 51 per cent of the cities have now adopted such plans.
