After record high temperatures for May were broken in Britain, Ireland and France on Monday and Tuesday, the continent still faces more brutal heat in the coming days.
A so-called "heat dome" of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the sort of heat not usually seen until high summer.
Here is a look at why Europe is warming faster than elsewhere:
The planet is around 1.4C warmer than in preindustrial times, defined as 1850-1900.
By comparison, Europe is around 2.4 hotter than the preindustrial era, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
"Almost all of this heat is driven by the human-induced greenhouse effect from fossil fuel emissions, with the actual distribution of this excess heat determined by (several) factors," Ben Clarke, researcher in extreme weather and climate change at Imperial College London, told AFP.
Shifts in atmospheric circulation have driven more frequent and more intense heatwaves in the European summer, according to Copernicus.
High-pressure systems, which bring settled weather and higher temperatures, have become more common in Europe, Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said.
"If you look over the last 20, 30 years, there has been a prevalence, especially in summer, of those sort of anticyclonic conditions that are making heatwaves more likely," Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo told AFP.
Whether the increased frequency of that specific type of high-pressure system is due to climate change or is just a "statistical fluctuation" is still a scientific debate, Buontempo said.
Source: The Local Italy
