Severe storms and flooding across Europe last year impacted 413,000 people with 335 lives lost while a total of 42,000 people were impacted by wildfires, according to a report.
The overall financial loss from these events was over €18 billion.
The European State of the Climate Report from the World Meteorological Organization and the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service says Europe is the fastest-warming continent.
It warns that every fraction of a degree of temperature rise increases the risks to lives, economies, and the planet.
Europe experienced its warmest year in 2024, with the second highest number of heat stress days and tropical nights on record.
There was a distinct east-west contrast in several climate variables, with eastern areas generally sunny and warm while western areas were cloudier and wetter.
Southeastern Europe experienced its longest recorded heatwave.
Experts have warned that global warming of 1.5 degrees could result in 30,000 deaths per year in Europe due to extreme heat, with southeastern Europe seeing the highest and fastest-rising toll.
Last September, fires in Portugal burned around 110,000 hectares of land in one week.
This was equivalent to around a quarter of Europe's total annual burnt area, but it occurred in a single week.
The numbers of days with "strong", "very strong" and "extreme heat stress" were all the second highest on record.
Overall, 60% of Europe experienced more than the long-term average number of days with at least strong heat stress.
Temperatures in western Europe varied more, with some months seeing average or cooler than average conditions.
Read more:
March second warmest on record, says EU climate body
Retrofitting and EV charging points focus of climate plan
Western Europe saw one of the ten wettest years on record, and Europe experienced the most widespread flooding since 2013.
Almost one third of the river network saw flooding that exceeded at least the 'high’ flood threshold.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says Europe is one of the regions in the world with the largest projected increase in flood risk.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
The area of Europe experiencing days with temperatures below freezing is decreasing.
The number of "cold stress days" in 2024 was the lowest on record.
Annual sea surface temperatures in the European region were the highest on record.
The temperature of the Mediterranean Sea was 1.2C above its long-term average.
It was also the warmest year for European lakes.
Glaciers in Scandinavia and Norway’s Svalbard saw their highest recorded annual rates of mass loss. They also saw the largest mass loss of any glacier region globally.
The year saw a record proportion of electricity generation by renewables at 45%.
Globally, 2024 was the warmest year and the first with an average temperature exceeding 1.5C above the pre-industrial level.
EU Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo said: "2024 was the warmest year on record for Europe. We observed the longest heatwave in south eastern Europe and record glacier mass loss in Scandinavia and Svalbard. But 2024 was also a year of marked climate contrasts between eastern and western Europe.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
"The European State of the Climate is a treasure trove of quality information about our changing climate. Learning how to use climate data and information to inform our decisions should become a priority for all of us."
The last ten years have been the warmest ten years on record.
Since the 1980s, Europe has warmed twice as fast as the global average.
This is partly due to the proportion of European land in the Arctic, which is the fastest-warming region on Earth, as well as more frequent summer heatwaves.
