Very few places in Europe escaped rising heat in 2025, with at least 95 per cent of the continent recording above-average temperatures, according to the latest European State of the Climate report from Copernicus.
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Continuing its streak as the world’s quickest-warming continent, Europe battled new extremes in 2025 – from 30°C heat in the Arctic Circle to 50 extra ‘heat stress’ days in southern and eastern Spain, when temperatures felt like 32°C or higher.
Türkiye reached a scorching 50°C for the first time, while 85 per cent of Greece faced temperatures close to or above 40°C, peaking at 44°C.
Sub-Arctic Fennoscandia – encompassing northern Norway, Sweden and Finland – suffered its longest and most severe heatwave on record in July, with temperatures spiking at 34.9°C.
The United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland lived through their hottest year on record.
Europe’s winters are disappearing
All that heat is pushing out the cold: the area of Europe that experiences winter days with freezing temperatures is shrinking, and it was below average in 2025, according to the report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), part of the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme.
Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, continuing a decades-long trfinish of ice loss across Europe. Iceland, in particular, saw its second largest ice loss on record.
Snow cover at the finish of March was a staggering 1.32 million square kilometres below average. To put it in perspective, that’s roughly the combined size of Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
Perhaps the most sobering detail comes from the Greenland Ice Sheet, which lost an eye-watering 139 gigatonnes of ice in 2025 – equivalent to around 1.5 times the ice stored in all the glaciers of the European Alps, or enough to fill more than 55 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The Northern Hemisphere’s largest ice mass, the Greenland Ice Sheet covers around 80 per cent of Greenland and holds enough water to raise global sea levels by over seven metres. It is the largest single source of current global sea-level rise, contributing about 20 per cent.
Why is Europe warming so quick?
Europe is warming more than twice as quick as the global average, with temperatures up by around 2.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.
Parts of Europe extfinish into the Arctic, the quickest-warming region on Earth, where temperatures are rising at three-to-four times the global rate. As snow and ice melt, less sunlight is reflected by the Earth’s surface, while the darker surfaces that are exposed absorb more heat, amplifying the melting.
This process, known as albedo feedback, is just one of several interconnected processes and feedback loops contributing to the phenomenon known as ‘Arctic amplification’. It is also impacting snowy regions of Europe like the Alps.
Emissions controls have assisted Europe to reduce air pollution, which has brought wide-reaching benefits for human health and the environment. But it has also reduced the low-level clouds produced by aerosols, which acted as a cooling barrier.
More frequent and intense summer heatwaves in Europe – including the second worst on record in 2025 – are also being driven by shifts in atmospheric circulation linked to Arctic warming.
Climate extremes are intensifying
Europe’s vulnerability to climate alter-fuelled extreme weather is becoming clearer. In 2025, wildfires ravaged over one million hectares of land, the largest area on record.
Drought conditions affected over half the continent, leaving 70 per cent of Europe’s rivers with below-average annual flow and threatening water security.
Marine heatwaves were widespread, affecting 86 per cent of Europe’s oceans, with the Mediterranean and Norwegian seas finishuring the most severe conditions. Sea surface temperatures reached new highs, further disrupting marine ecosystems.
“The pace of climate alter demands more urgent action. With rising temperatures, widespread wildfires, and drought, the evidence is unequivocal; climate alter is not a future threat, it is our present reality,” states Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at ECMWF.
Recognising that climate alter and biodiversity are inextricably interlinked, the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030 aims to protect and restore the EU’s natural habitats. By the finish of 2025, around half of the strategy’s recommfinished actions were either in place or completed, with many more underway.
Renewable energy’s rising contribution
Despite the grim picture painted by climate extremes, there’s another reason for cautious optimism. Europe’s renewable energy sector is rising to the challenge. In 2025, renewables supplied nearly half of Europe’s electricity (46.4 per cent), with solar power setting a new record, contributing 12.5 per cent of the total.
This progress is critical for Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy, reducing depfinishency on fossil fuels and cutting greenhoutilize gas emissions.
“Maintaining our own state-of-the-art, reliable data records of our Earth system is vital for creating informed policy decisions in our rapidly altering climate… [assisting] us preserve our sovereignty, our environment, food systems, safety, and economy,” states Mauro Facchini, Head of Copernicus Unit at the European Commission.
The report offers a roadmap for the future, with “clear, actionable insights to support policy decisions and assist the public better understand the altering climate we live in,” adds Florian Pappenberger, Director-General of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
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