Europe experienced a record number of days with "extreme" heat levels for human bodies in 2023, according to a new report by the European Observatory Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
"2023 saw a record number of extreme heat stress days, that is, days where the perceived temperature exceeded the equivalent of 46°C," the report read. Temperatures exceeding 35°C or 40°C exacerbate health impacts due to humidity, lack of wind or urban heat.
This "heat-stress" index considers the effects of temperature and other factors such as humidity, wind, and radiation on the human body.
Alongside heatwaves, the continent also endured numerous extreme weather events throughout the year. Around 2 million people were affected by floods or storms, severe droughts in the Iberian Peninsula and Eastern Europe, and the continent’s largest-ever forest fire devastated 96,000 hectares in Greece.
'No exception'
These disasters cost Europe €13.4 billion, with 80% attributable to floods in a year marked by above-average rainfall, the two institutions noted.
Their report particularly focuses on the health impact of heatwaves as global warming makes summers progressively hotter and deadlier on the continent.
"We observe a rising trend in the number of heat stress days in Europe, and 2023 was no exception" with this new record, said Rebecca Emerton, a climatologist at Copernicus, although the report does not quantify this.
On 23 July, the peak of the heatwave, 13% of Europe experienced at least one degree of heat stress, a never-seen-before event.
Extreme heat particularly struck Southern Europe, where the air temperature reached up to 48.2°C in Sicily, just 0.6 degrees below the continental record.
Globally, 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded due to climate change exacerbated by the cyclical phenomenon El Niño, and ocean temperatures, which absorb 90% of humanity-induced excess heat, have been at unprecedented levels for a year.
