The State of the Climate in Europe 2021
Earth’s climate system is complex. To simplify its complexity, the WMO uses seven climate indicators to observe Earth’s changing climate at global and regional levels and to understand how Earth’s climate is influenced by interactions involving the atmosphere, ocean, earth, clouds, ice, land and life. The State of the Climate in Europe 2021 offers a regional perspective of climate variability and its impacts on the European continent.
The Global Context
Before exploring the state of the climate in Europe, it is important to first know what the overall global climate looked like in 2021.
Atmospheric concentrations of the three major greenhouse gases (CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) reached new record highs in 2020 and real-time data indicate that levels continued to increase in 2021. The global annual mean temperature in 2021 was around 1.11 ±0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, less warm than in some recent years owing to cooling La Niña conditions at the start and end of the year. Ocean heat content in 2021 was the highest on record. Ocean warming and accelerated loss of ice mass from the ice sheets contributed to global mean sea level rise, which also reached a record high in 2021. See more information on the State of the Global Climate here .
What was the climate like in Europe in 2021?
Temperature Rise
The temperature close to Earth’s surface has large impacts on both human and non-human systems. It affects health, agriculture and energy demand, for example, as well as growth cycles of other organisms.
Temperatures over Europe have warmed significantly over the 1991-2021 period, at an average rate of about +0.5 °C per decade, making it the fastest warming region of all the WMO Regions.
The annual mean temperature in 2021 ranked between 6th and 10th highest on record, depending on the data set used.
Precipitation
Precipitation is one of the key climate parameters and, compared with temperature, is characterized by a high spatial and temporal variability.
Its lack can lead to droughts, while its excess can cause floods and/or high river discharges and soil moistures.
While precipitation in 2021 overall was slightly above normal in central and eastern Europe, it still was not enough to compensate from below normal precipitation from the previous three years.
In other areas, such as the Iberian Peninsula and the Alpine region, it was the second or third consecutive drier-than-normal year.
Cryosphere
The cryosphere covers all the parts of the Earth system where water is in solid form, including ice sheets, ice shelves, glaciers, snow cover, permafrost (frozen ground), sea ice, and river and lake ice, all of which can be found within Europe.
Sea ice extent
In September, the daily extent of the European Arctic reached record minima for the years covered by the satellite data record.
Average sea ice extent in the European Arctic sector in September 2021 was 37% below 1981-2010 average.
A significant contributor to these low values was the record low sea ice conditions in the Greenland Sea from July to September.
Glaciers and Ice Sheets
Glaciers and ice sheets gain mass through accumulation of snow and lose mass through surface melting -- via interactions with the atmosphere or at their frontal regions via interactions with lake or ocean water.
In Europe, glaciers have lost a volume of 821 billion m 3 of ice from 1997 to 2021, with glaciers in the Alps recording the largest ice losses over this period with a reduction in ice thickness of 30 m.
Meanwhile, in summer 2021, Greenland saw an unprecedented melt event, coincident with the first-ever recorded rainfall at Greenland‘s highest point, Summit station. Preliminary sources indicate the Greenland Ice Sheet continued to lose mass during the 2021 mass balance year.
Any change in the ice mass stored on land, such as when ice sheets and glaciers grow or shrink, has a direct impact on global mean sea level.
How much is sea level rising in Europe?
Since 1993, global mean sea level has increased at an average rate of 3.3 ± 0.4 mm/year.
This amounts to a total increase of about 9 cm between 1993 and 2021.
On a regional scale for Europe, most areas are increasing around 2–4 mm/year.
The Baltic Sea exhibits one of the highest sea level trends, at greater than 4 mm/year.
Change in mean sea level is an essential indicator of our evolving climate, as it reflects both the loss of mass from ice sheets and glaciers and thermal expansion due to warming ocean temperatures.
Ocean Heat Content
Around 90% of the excess energy that accumulates in the earth system due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, goes into the ocean.
Regional trends for the period 2005-2021 show ocean heat increase at rates up to more than 5 W/m2 in some specific regions, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea.
Other regions show a negative trend, at rates up to about -5 W/m, such as in the subpolar North Atlantic.
Sea Surface Temperature
While ocean heat content provides information about warming at depth, the sea surface is the boundary between the ocean and atmosphere.
Sea surface temperature (SST) can be used to understand the flows of energy between the ocean and atmosphere, and hence the role of the oceans in shaping the weather and climate and vice versa.
There has been an overall warming of all major ocean basins of the region during the industrial era, though the rate of warming differs.
In 2021, the average SST across the region was between the sixth and eighth warmest year on record, depending on the dataset. SSTs across the region were mostly near or warmer than the 1991–2020 reference period.
The most above average temperatures occurred in the central and eastern Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Greenland, as well as an area just west of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa extending across the Atlantic.
Extreme Events in 2021 in Europe as reported by WMO Members.
Impacts
Climate Policy & Action
Although greenhouse gas emissions in the EU decreased by 31% between 1990 and 2020 — less the EU’s 2020 target by 11%, further implementation of impactful policies and measures will be important to bring the new 2030 target within reach.
Mitigation to climate change has already been a primary focus in the region as reflected in their NDCs , highlighting energy supply, agriculture, waste, and land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) as top mitigation priorities.
The NDCs are also an important mechanism to protect children and youth from the impacts of climate change.
According to the UNICEF Children’s Climate Risk Index, nearly 125 million children in Europe live in countries with ‘medium to high’ risk countries.
This risk calls for action on making climate policy child and youth sensitive and mainstreaming DRR and climate change adaptation into primary and secondary school curricula and education legal frameworks.
Efforts to address the health risks associated with climate change are also progressing slowly and insufficiently.
Transitioning to a zero-carbon economy could bring a range of near- and long-term health gains.
According to WHO, about 138 000 premature deaths could be avoided per year through reduced carbon emissions, potentially resulting in savings of US$ 244–564 billion.
Mitigation alone is not enough, adaptation to the worst impacts of climate change is also necessary.
Although 75% of people in Europe are covered by early warnings systems (EWS), several Members reported to have inadequate end-to-end riverine flood forecasting and end-to-end flash flood forecasting services.
This is a concern, considering that in the last 50 years 38% of the weather, water, and climate disasters were related to floods.
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