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In 2024, Europe experienced its warmest year on record. Ocean, sea and lake temperatures were the highest ever recorded, heat stress increased further, and floods and wildfires hit Spain and Portugal.

River floods

Austrian floods: Textbook examples of the impact of climate change

April 7, 2025

Wildfires

Peatland fires dominate carbon emissions by wildfires in the UK

March 20, 2025

Coastal erosion and coastal floods

Sea level rise in 2024 much higher than expected

March 14, 2025

Wildfires

North American forests have burned more often in the past, but the impacts are now greater

March 13, 2025

Climate change

The European Union is taking major steps in the energy transition

February 17, 2025

Climate change

‘Detective’ Hansen concludes: we have reached the +1.5 °C threshold of the Paris Climate Agreement

February 13, 2025

Forestry and Peatlands

Higher temperatures and more droughts endanger the future of Britain’s peatlands

February 4, 2025

Health

Increase in heat-related deaths will outpace decline in cold-related deaths in Europe, recent study shows

January 31, 2025

Coastal erosion and coastal floods

Coastal infrastructure increases the vulnerability of sandy beaches

January 21, 2025

Avalanches and landslides

The number of avalanches in the Alps is decreasing less than the decrease in snowfall would suggest

December 19, 2024

The decline of the number of dry-snow avalanches this century will be partially compensated for by an increase in wet-snow avalanche activity. The vertical layering of the snowpack is a key factor.

Flood hazard of ice-dammed lakes at melting glaciers is decreasing

March 29, 2023

Climate change already increases the number of rockfalls in the Alps

July 19, 2021

The future of landslides in the Pyrenees

March 15, 2021

Temperature and precipitation changes seem to trigger slope destabilization in the Alps

September 8, 2019

Droughts and desertification

Trend of more extreme drought in Europe continues

August 9, 2024

Since 1950, the frequency and intensity of extreme soil and air drought events have increased over most of Europe. A further increase is projected between now and 2100.

Droughts in the Swiss Alps: At the transition from the wet north to the dry south

July 30, 2024

Drought magnitude and frequency in Ireland will increase in the summer

January 3, 2024

Dryer summers and heavier rainfall: a bad combination

February 10, 2023

Adaptation may strongly limit Europe’s economic drought impacts with global warming

September 20, 2021

Flash floods and urban flooding

Floods have become less deadly worldwide

March 5, 2024

Over the last five decades, floods have become less deadly. The global number of flood events has increased over time, but the average number of people killed and affected per event has decreased.

Half of the annual precipitation falls in fewer and fewer days

February 7, 2024

A flaw in classic approach to flooding: the floods of 2021

June 22, 2022

Intense rainstorms are moving more slowly, causing more floods

October 3, 2021

Fingerprint of climate change in recent European floods

August 24, 2021

Health

Increase in heat-related deaths will outpace decline in cold-related deaths in Europe, recent study shows

January 31, 2025

Both strong reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation measures are needed to avoid an increase of temperature-related mortality in most European cities this century.

More trees, fewer deaths from the heat, London study shows

July 24, 2024

How the hottest city in the US fights the heat

April 23, 2024

Twenty years after the deadly heat of 2003, Europe’s heat response is still ineffective

January 29, 2024

Clear footprint of global warming on death toll in European summer of 2022

August 1, 2023

River floods

Austrian floods: Textbook examples of the impact of climate change

April 7, 2025

Hourly heavy rainfall in Austria has increased by 15% over the last four decades, both north and south of the Alpine ridge. The increase in flood discharge in small catchments is twice as large.

In small island states, only a small part of the flood risk comes from the sea

December 16, 2024

Heavy rainfall Central Europe 2024 twice as likely due to climate change

September 25, 2024

Room for the river, the exception rather than the rule

January 22, 2024

The best way to combat increasing river flood risk in Europe? Water storage!

April 28, 2023

Security and crisis management

How climate change is affecting global migration patterns

April 18, 2023

Migration in response to climate change is not an option for an increasing number of poor people. They lack the financial means to move and are the ‘trapped population’.

Climate-driven shocks to agriculture spur emigration from poor countries

January 17, 2020

Does climate change already affect armed conflicts?

September 25, 2019

New perspectives on the global distribution of climate risk. The Netherlands stands out!

January 7, 2019

Ranking the world on climate security: European countries at the top

August 16, 2018

Storms

Hurricane Kirk is coming to Europe. Well, not quite.

October 7, 2024

What started off as a hurricane over the Atlantic is about to hit the European continent as a storm. The hurricane will have dissipated much of its energy by then.

Hurricanes develop much faster now, giving residents less time to prepare

July 5, 2024

Unprecedented high thunderstorm losses in the USA and Europe: the natural disasters of 2023

May 31, 2024

Americans, brace yourself for this year’s hurricane season

April 5, 2024

More lightning in the north, less in the south

February 9, 2023

Wildfires

Peatland fires dominate carbon emissions by wildfires in the UK

March 20, 2025

In the past 20 years, 70% of the total UK wildfire carbon emissions were caused by the burning of organic soils in peatlands. In a 2 °C warmer world, this contribution may increase by about 60%.