Winter warmth caps off an unusually toasty year
Temperatures in Europe will close out 2022 much like they started – and where they spent a lot of the year – with record warmth overtaking much of the continent.
Widespread areas of recordchallenging temperatures are set to expand into central and eastern Europe over the holiday weekend and into next week before an eventual relaxation – but warmer-than-normal temperatures will be dominant for landlocked regions well into January.
This latest bout of unusually mild winter weather comes as the British Met Office says 2022 will be the warmest year on record for the United Kingdom. The office has also indicated that it will be the warmest year in a 364-year Central England temperature series, the longest instrumental record of temperatures on the planet.
‘‘What has been noteworthy this year has been the relatively consistent heat through the year, with every month except December being warmer than average,’’ said Mark McCarthy, head of the service’s National Climate Information Centre.
Similarly to what is expected over the next week, warmth overtook Britain on New Year’s Day 2022, when record maximums for the date were set in England, Scotland and Wales.
The latest round of weirdly warm readings is getting under way in France and Germany as the year closes. Numerous locations have remained above 10C for overnight lows.
Myriad records are likely to fall on New Year’s Day across Europe. Additional records are possible in eastern Europe during the first week of the new year. Temperatures of at least 15C are anticipated in much of the heart of the continent, and it’s probable that readings will surpass 20C in some locations.
These are temperatures more like those seen in spring, and perhaps even late spring, than the middle of winter. France could experience temperatures about 8C above average, according to meteorologist Guillaume Se´ chet.
A list of daily high temperature records for the final day of the year in several German cities – including 14C in Berlin and 16.8C in Dresden – shows that most were set only one year ago. ‘‘Almost all of them will probably be cracked again this year,’’ tweeted Kachelmannwetter, a weather company and popular weather account from Germany.
Throughout the holiday weekend, average daily readings in excess of 11C above normal are forecast to occur in a belt from much of Germany in the west to Ukraine in the east.
Energy supplies remain a concern amid high prices and inconsistent supply, so any break in the cold could be helpful.
During the northern summer, temperatures above 40C were recorded in Britain for the first time in modern history. Other than some cold weather earlier in December, the heat kept resurfacing with regularity in Europe across the year.
The warmth of 2022 – often arriving hand in hand with drought conditions – is strongly influenced by human-caused climate change. Some days with extreme temperatures would be exceedingly difficult, or in some cases impossible, without background warming.