Europe in 2025: extremes from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean

The sub-Arctic Fennoscandia heatwave was one of many extreme events across Europe in 2025, part of a wider trend in which such conditions increasingly affect not just the continent’s south, but northern regions used to more moderate climates.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average, with the Arctic region increasing faster still. The report finds that in 2025, at least 95% of Europe saw above-average annual temperatures, with several northern countries having experienced their warmest year on record. Five of Europe’s warmest years have occurred since 2019. Globally, 2025 was the third-warmest year on record, with all the previous 11 years being the 11 warmest on record.

“The ESOTC 2025 paints a stark picture: the pace of climate change demands more urgent action,” said Dr Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at ECMWF. “The evidence is unequivocal: climate change is not a future threat, it is our present reality. When we look at what our observations are telling us about Europe’s climate, I’m struck by how directly these changes are affecting communities, ecosystems and the species that share this continent with us.”

The sub-Arctic Fennoscandia heatwave was one of several severe heat events in 2025. In parts of Greenland, annual temperatures were up to 5°C above average. Across western Europe, the average temperature between mid-June and early July was the highest on record for the time of year, with Spain, Portugal, France and southern Britain particularly affected.

Extreme heat also affected Central and southeastern Europe in late June and July, with Slovenia setting a national June temperature record of 38.4°C. July saw Europe’s second-most-severe heatwave on record, a 25-day spell across much of the continent. On 25 July, a record-breaking 50°C was recorded in Türkiye and temperatures continued to climb, peaking that day at 50.5°C at Silopi in the southeast of the country.

In August, a third heatwave struck the Iberian Peninsula and France, with temperatures reaching 45°C in Spain and 42°C in France. 2025 was one of the three driest years for soil moisture since 1992, with more than half the continent in drought conditions in May.