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Why is it so hot in Europe?

2026-05-29 14:08:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Why is it so hot in Europe?

Much of Western Europe is suffering from an intense spring heatwave, with unusually high temperatures from the United Kingdom and Ireland in the north, through Germany and France and all the way to Spain and Italy.

The inclement weather is the result of a “heat dome.” This strong, high-pressure atmospheric system moving slowly from northern Africa is trapping hot air over Europe, much like a lid on a boiling pot of water.

Such weather systems have become more common in Europe over the past 25 years, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, driving more frequent and extreme heatwaves.

This accelerated warming is partly due to location. Europe is connected to the Arctic, the only other place in the world that is warming even faster.

The average temperature rise around the North Pole has already exceeded 3.3 degrees Celsius, according to data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Partly because the darker, ice-free Arctic Ocean absorbs more sunlight than the ice, which reflects it.

This process, known as the "albedo" effect, is also at play across Europe. Areas of the continent that were once frozen year-round or in late summer, such as the high-altitude regions of the Alps, are now increasingly snow-free. With darker land reflecting less solar radiation back into space, warming has accelerated.

Scientists have also linked the warming in Europe to winds that are changing the direction of the jet stream, the high-altitude river of air that flows toward Europe from the west. Those once relatively stable winds have also been disrupted by climate change, leading to more extreme weather patterns that tend to persist.

A 2022 study led by Efi Rousi, then a postdoctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, found that periods when the air current split into two branches have also increased. This is resulting in more heat waves across Europe - especially in the west. /CNA





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