Western Europe saw warmest June-July on record, EU scientists say

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Western Europe experienced its warmest June-July period on record, with heat and ‌drought fuelling extreme wildfires across the region, ‌the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Monday.

"Climate change ​is increasingly bringing the kinds of hot and dry conditions that favour large, high-intensity wildfires in southern Europe while extending the fire season northwards," Laurence Rouil, director ‌of the Copernicus ⁠Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said in a statement.

Here are some more details from the report:

• ⁠Globally, July temperatures were 1.47 degrees Celsius above the estimated pre-industrial 1850-1900 average, making it the second-warmest ​month on ​record.

• Average June-July temperature ​for western Europe reached ‌21.62 C — or 2.79 C above average — surpassing the previous 2022 record.

• Sea surface temperature was the highest recorded for July across the extra-polar oceans, partly fuelled by developing El Niño conditions in the ‌equatorial Pacific.

• Exceptionally low rainfall ​and soil moisture led to ​much lower than ​average river levels in Europe, with ‌the Seine, Rhine and Danube ​particularly impacted.

• Critically ​low levels at major waterways have prompted companies and households to curb electricity use as ​power plants shut ‌down or lowered output while cargo traffic ​was increasingly restrained.

(Reporting by Tristan Veyet in Gdansk, ​editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)