5 hours before
Credit, EPA
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The weather was unusually warm during the Christmas holidays in Spain
January temperatures reached an alltime high in several European countries.
National records have been set in eight countries and regional records in three more.
Warsaw, the capital of Poland, recorded 18.9°C on Sunday (01/01) while the temperature in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao reached 25.1°C more than 10°C above average.
Heavy snow and freezing rain are forecast for regions north of the Midwest, while severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are expected in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
But on the European side of the Atlantic, the weather was mild in many places earlier in the year.
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High temperatures have affected ski resorts like this one in Austria
Temperatures in the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark and Belarus broke national records.
Regional records were broken in Germany, France and Ukraine.
The temperature reached in Warsaw on January 1st was 4°C higher than the previously recorded record for the month; and the record set in Belarus was 16.4C about 4.5C higher than the previous one.
In Spain, New Year’s Day temperatures in Bilbao were in line with July averages and parts of Catalonia, including Barcelona, are subject to water use restrictions.
Records are broken all the time, but it’s unusual for the difference to be more than a few tenths of a degree.
In Switzerland, temperatures reached 20°C and the hot weather affected ski resorts in the Alps, which were suffering from a lack of snow.
But it’s not hot everywhere in Europe cold and snowy parts of Scandinavia and Moscow are forecast, where temperatures are expected to drop to 20C over the weekend.
Credit, EPA
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Warm temperatures have caused cherry blossoms to appear earlier in the Polish city of Szczecin
Just days earlier, Britain, Ireland, France and Spain had declared 2022 the hottest year on record.
In the UK every month except December was warmer than average. December snowed across much of the country, although conditions are now milder and wetter.
In an interview with Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, meteorologist Scott Duncan said the causes of the record streak were difficult to pinpoint, with the La Niña weather phenomenon and abnormal heat on sea surfaces playing major roles.
“Our warming atmosphere and oceans are making it easier to break records,” Duncan told the publication.
Heat waves have become more frequent, more intense and longer due to humancaused climate change.
But phenomena like these in winter do not have the same impact on humans as summer heat waves, which can lead to large numbers of deaths.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1°C since the start of the industrial age, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments around the world drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.