EU Climate Change Service states: Third warmest April since measurements began | blue News

Last April, researchers measured the second-highest sea surface temperature since records began. This applies to all oceans outside the polar region, according to the Climate Change Service of the EU Copernicus program in Bonn.

Record temperatures were measured in large parts of the tropical Pacific, which were accompanied by strong maritime heat waves. The month was also the third warmest April worldwide since records began.

According to the report, there were considerable temperature differences in the northern hemisphere in April. In Europe, for example, temperatures were well above average in large parts of the southwest, while Spain even recorded the warmest April since records began. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, it was particularly cold.

Floods, flash floods, droughts

The month was also characterized by extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones in the Pacific, flooding in the Middle East and droughts in southern Africa. Flash floods hit parts of the Arabian Peninsula, while flooding and landslides occurred in some regions of Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

In the Arctic, the average sea ice extent in April was about five percent below average, the second lowest for the month, just behind the record of six percent below average set in April 2019.

Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts commented: “April 2026 reinforces the clear signal of continued global warming. Sea surface temperatures were near record highs with widespread ocean heatwaves, Arctic sea ice remained well below average, and there were sharp contrasts in temperatures and precipitation in Europe — all hallmarks of a climate increasingly characterized by extremes.”

The European Union’s Copernicus climate service regularly publishes data on the Earth’s surface temperature, sea ice cover and precipitation, for example. The findings are based on computer-generated analyses that incorporate billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.