EU monitor warns of 'new normal' following record temperatures in May

Records were broken in Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal last month as a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal levels across western Europe. Europe experienced one of its hottest Mays on record last month under an unusually early heatwave that the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service warned is becoming the "new normal". It was the second-hottest May on record globally, and Britain, France, Ireland and Portugal broke their own records as a "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa pushed temperatures well above normal levels across western Europe. "The month was marked by a rapid transition from much cooler-than-average conditions to one of the most intense heatwaves ever observed this early in the year in western Europe," the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its May bulletin. The "unusually early and intense heatwave demonstrates how quickly climate extremes are becoming the new normal rather than the exception", said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium–Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus. "Feels-like" temperatures reached 35C to 40C across large parts of Europe, Copernicus said. "The rapid transition likely increased impacts on populations, leaving little time for people, as well as crops and ecosystems, to acclimatise to much higher temperatures," it said. Globally, the average surface air temperature reached 15.81C, second only to May 2024, according to Copernicus. The average sea surface temperature was also the second-highest on record, behind May 2024, as conditions shift towards the warming El Niño weather pattern. Forecasts warn that the coming El Niño could be one of the strongest on record, pushing global temperatures to historic highs in 2027. Temperatures stayed at "exceptionally high levels" across a swathe of the tropical Pacific, Copernicus said. El Niño has an 80% chance of developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said last week. The last El Niño contributed to making 2023 the second-hottest year on record and 2024 the all-time high.