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2024 was also Europe’s hottest year on record, with almost half of the continent experiencing record-high annual temperatures.
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Europe experienced “serious impacts” from extreme weather and climate change in 2024, according to a new report published Tuesday.
The continent was afflicted by “often severe” storms that triggered the most widespread flooding since 2013, data compiled by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization revealed. Western Europe was hit hardest, with 2024 ranking among the top ten wettest years since 1950.
An estimated 413,000 people were affected, and at least 335 lost their lives.
Notable events included deadly floods in Valencia, a province in eastern Spain. 500 millimeters (20 inches) of rain – a year’s worth for some locations – fell in just eight hours in late October, trapping people in their homes and cars.
The unprecedented storm was fuelled by warmer-than-usual sea waters that were made at least 50 to 300 times more likely by human-caused climate change, researchers later found. According to the Tuesday report, sea surface temperature across Europe were 0.7C above average and the Mediterranean Sea at 1.2C above average last year.
The floodwaters killed at least 232 people across the region, making it the year’s deadliest weather-related event.
A month earlier, similarly intense downpours triggered devastating flooding in eight countries in central and eastern Europe. Climate change was once again found to have increased the likelihood and intensity of the unprecedented storm, which claimed at least 19 lives.
As a result of these and other flooding events, 30% of the European river network exceeded the “high” flood threshold during the year, while 12% exceeded the “severe” flood threshold, Tuesday’s report revealed.
Climate change is intensifying the water cycle, bringing more intense rainfall and associated flooding.
As ocean surfaces warm, so does the air above it, causing water to be carried up to high altitudes to form clouds, while leaving a low pressure zone beneath causing more air to rush in. The warmer the air, the more water it can hold: for every extra degree Celsius of warming, air can hold 7% more moisture.
2024 was Europe’s hottest year on record, with nearly half of the continent experiencing record-high annual temperatures last year, the report said.
The numbers of days with “strong”, “very strong” and “extreme heat stress” were all the second highest on record, while 60% of Europe saw more days than average with at least “strong heat stress”.
Heat is extremely dangerous for humans as it compromises physiological processes meant to keep the body cool, heightening the risk of heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses. It can be life-threatening if not promptly treated.
The number of tropical nights is also on the rise in Europe, according to the report.
High nighttime temperatures are detrimental to human health, as they prevent the body from recovering from daytime heat. This not only disrupts sleep, which can negatively affect physical and mental health, cognitive function, and life expectancy, but it also increases the risk of illness and mortality.
People without access to air conditioning – a huge proportion of the world’s population – are particularly at risk. While about 90% of households in the US and 60% in China have some sort of air conditioning system, the number is worryingly lower in rapidly warming places like Europe, where only 10% of the population uses it.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. Here, heat-related mortality has already increased by around 30% in the past two decades, coinciding with a rise in the average temperature. A recent study attributed nearly 48,000 deaths in the country in 2023 to extreme heat.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.
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