France follows England in measuring hottest spring on record

France follows England in measuring hottest spring on record Andrew Zinin Lead Editor France experienced its hottest spring on record, the country's weather service said Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke seasonal highs in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature from March to May was 13.8C—about 1.7C above normal and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. "The warmest spring since records began in 1900," it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an "unprecedented heat wave" in late May pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of summer. "Our country had never before reached such high temperatures at this time of year; numerous monthly records were broken," the weather service said. France's soils—which were very wet at the beginning of spring—had become "very dry" by the end of the season because of the heat wave and a lack of rainfall, the weather service said. France, Britain and Portugal all reported their hottest-ever May days as a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal across Western Europe. It was also the hottest-ever spring for England and Wales, but only the third-hottest overall for the United Kingdom, the country's Met Office said Monday. In some locations, temperature records were exceeded by 2C as the heat wave helped drive "an exceptional end to the season," the U.K. weather service said. Farther north, Norway's Meteorological Institute also announced Tuesday the country's hottest spring since record-keeping began in 1901. The Scandinavian nation escaped the late May heat wave, but average temperatures were still 2.1C above the seasonal norm, the institute said, with particular warmth in the country's north. Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, in part because it is connected to the Arctic, where bright snow and ice are melting and revealing darker, heat-absorbing surfaces such as land and ocean. Scientists agree that heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense as the planet warms because of human-caused climate change from burning fossil fuels. The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday there was an 80% chance of a warming El Niño weather pattern forming between June and August. WMO chief Celeste Saulo said the world needed to get ready for an El Niño, which could "exacerbate drought and heavy rainfall and increase the risk of heat waves both on land and in the ocean." El Niño is one half of a naturally occurring climate cycle that can temporarily drive up global temperatures and prime conditions for more extreme weather around the globe. Key concepts effects of climate changeClimate ChangeHot TemperatureEl Nino-Southern OscillationExtreme WeatherGlobal WarmingExtreme Heat© 2026 AFP