No other continent is warming as quickly as Europe. The European State of the Climate 2024 report, released Tuesday, shows that the continent broke countless temperature records last year, with extreme weather upending the lives of nearly half a million people.

The report, put together by around 100 researchers from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization, shows that the average temperature across Europe has increased by roughly 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 Fahrenheit) since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century. Except for Iceland, where it was cooler than average, the entire continent saw above-average temperatures.

Globally, the average temperature has increased by 1.3 Celsius, making 2024 the warmest since weather records began.

“Ocean temperatures were exceptionally high, sea levels continued to rise, ice sheets and glaciers continued to melt,” said Samantha Burgess, one of the report’s lead authors, speaking with reporters.

“All this as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continued to increase, reaching record levels again in 2024. Since the 1980s, Europe has been warming at twice the global average rate,” she added.

Floods, extreme heat endangering people, cities

The record temperatures had wide-ranging consequences in 2024. “It’s not just a global average temperature number. It really has an impact at the regional and local scale,” said Florence Rabier, the director-general of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which contributes to Copernicus.

Whether by floods, heat waves, storms or drought, the lives of Europe’s roughly 750 million people are being increasingly shaped by extreme weather — fueled by human-caused climate change.

Major flooding in Spain’s Valencia region last October and November killed more than 220 people. The amount of heavy rain, which smashed all previous records in only a few hours, left behind destroyed homes, cars and infrastructure, with the Spanish government so far pledging €16 billion ($18 billion) in reconstruction aid and compensation. 

Just one month earlier, persistent rainfall from Storm Boris caused extensive flooding in towns and cities in eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe. An estimated 413,000 people were affected across Europe last year due to floods and storms, with some 335 losing their lives.

At the same time, Europe sweltered through the second-highest number of days with extreme heat stress ever recorded. Eastern Europe, in particular, was especially hot and dry, and Southern Europe saw lengthy droughts, even in the winter months.

In Western Europe, by contrast, it rained more than in almost any year since 1950. The heavy rain, combined with drought conditions, sharply increased the risk of flooding. Parched soils, baked hard by the sun, are unable to absorb large volumes of water in a short space of time, quickly leading to dangerous flood conditions.

Europe — and especially cities — need to adapt to changing climate

“Every additional fraction of a degree of temperature rise matters, because it accentuates the risks to our lives, to economies and to the planet,” said Celeste Saulo, the head of the World Meteorological Organization. “Adaptation is a must.”

Despite the worrying weather trends, global planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase. But Tuesday’s report does highlight one glimmer of good news: in 2024, renewable energy production in Europe hit a new high, with some 45% of energy coming from climate-friendly sources like solar, wind and biomass.

But when it comes to living with the increasing risk of extreme weather and heat stress, the report warned that European countries needed to strengthen early warning systems and climate adaptation measures — as soon as possible.

According to Burgess, long-term global warming over 1.5 degrees Celsius could contribute to at least 30,000 additional deaths in Europe due to extreme heat by 2100.

Researchers noted that just over half of European cities have now adopted dedicated climate adaptation plans to confront extreme weather and protect their citizens — up from 26% just seven years ago.

Paris, Milan, Glasgow and cities in the Netherlands are leading the way. Among other initiatives, city leaders are creating facilities to protect people from extreme heat, expanding green spaces to help cool urban areas and building out flood protection measures.

This article was originally written in German.