Almost no part of Europe escaped extreme weather and unusually high temperatures in 2025, according to the European State of the Climate 2025 report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization. The year brought unprecedented heatwaves, the continent’s largest wildfire season on record and the hottest-ever sea surface temperatures in the region.
“The pace of climate change demands more urgent action,” said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, stressing that rising temperatures, widespread wildfires and drought make climate change an immediate reality.
Heat across land and sea
At least 95% of Europe experienced above-average annual temperatures. The United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland each recorded their warmest year on record. Several major heatwaves struck the continent; one persisted for 25 days and affected multiple countries. The sub-Arctic areas of Norway, Sweden and Finland endured 21 days of extreme heat stress — far above the roughly two days they’d typically expect. Spain suffered its most intense heatwave since at least 1975.
Long-term warming trends continue: five of Europe’s 10 warmest years have occurred since 2019. Ocean warming is part of the pattern too — European sea surface temperatures hit their highest annual average for the fourth consecutive year. Warmer seas are damaging to marine biodiversity, leading to mass mortality events and disrupting food webs.
The human toll is severe. The Lancet Countdown estimates nearly 63,000 heat-related deaths in Europe in 2024, and researchers report that mortality linked to high temperatures has risen in almost all monitored regions since 2014. “Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, with far-reaching repercussions on socioeconomic wellbeing and on ecosystems and biodiversity,” said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.
Drought, wildfires and water shortages
More than half of Europe faced varying degrees of drought in May, and soil moisture reached record low levels in many areas, threatening crop yields and raising wildfire risk. Overall, 2025 was catastrophic for wildfires: more than 1 million hectares burned across the continent. Greece experienced one of its most severe outbreaks when 50 separate fires ignited within 24 hours. Drought also reduced river flows, with over two-thirds of European rivers running below their average annual levels.
A mixed impact on energy
Sunny, dry conditions helped solar output: every EU country expanded its solar grid in 2025. Renewables gained ground broadly — driven in part by concerns about fossil fuel volatility amid geopolitical tensions. Renewables supplied nearly half of Europe’s electricity, and for the first time wind and solar together generated more power than fossil fuels in the EU, according to Ember, a global energy think tank.
Solar set a new record, supplying around 13% of the continent’s electricity, and this marked the fourth consecutive year of solar growth exceeding 20%. In Hungary, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands, solar accounted for roughly one-fifth of national electricity production. “This milestone shows how rapidly the EU is moving toward a power system backed by wind and solar,” said Beatrice Petrovich, senior energy analyst at Ember, noting the strategic importance of clean domestic energy as fossil fuel dependence fuels instability.
Melting snow, shrinking ice and rising seas
Warming also hit Europe’s frozen regions. In March, snow cover losses amounted to an area roughly equal to the combined size of France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the largest declines in Eastern Europe. Glaciers retreated across nearly every European region; Iceland recorded its second-largest annual glacier loss since 1976.
Greenland’s ice sheet lost about 139 gigatons of ice in 2025. Over the past half-century, ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica has contributed roughly three centimeters of global sea level rise. Each additional centimeter of sea level rise increases the number of people exposed to coastal flooding by about six million.
Edited by: Tamsin Walker