State of the Climate in Europe 2021

Publication

01 November 2022

Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world. As the warming trend continues, exceptional heat, wildfires, floods and other climate change impacts will affect society, economies and ecosystems.

This State of the Climate in Europe report is produced jointly with the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, and focuses on 2021. It provides information on rising temperatures, land and marine heatwaves, extreme weather, changing precipitation patterns and retreating ice and snow.

Temperatures over Europe have warmed significantly over the 1991-2021 period, at an average rate of about +0.5 °C per decade. As a result, Alpine glaciers lost 30 meters in ice thickness from 1997 to 2021. The Greenland ice sheet is melting and contributing to accelerating sea level rise. In summer 2021, Greenland saw a melt event and the first-ever recorded rainfall at its highest point, Summit station.

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State of the Climate in Europe 2021

Misty morning over a rolling rural landscape with scattered trees and golden sunlight.

Storymap: State of Climate in Europe 2021

Earth’s climate system is complex. To simplify its complexity, the WMO uses seven climate indicators to observe Earth’s changing climate at global and regional levels and to understand how Earth’s climate is influenced by interactions involving the atmosphere, ocean, earth, clouds, ice, land and life.