A new report on climate in Europe found that last month — which saw a series of heat waves — was the hottest June in the western portion of the continent on record.

What’s more, the findings from the Copernicus ​Climate Change Service (C3S), which partnered with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts to produce the report, noted that last month was also the second-hottest June globally.

The report stated that the June heat wave “came only a few weeks after a particularly intense heatwave in May.” It also recognizes that another heat wave has emerged in July.

Temperatures this June were, on average, 1.78°C above the 1991-2020 average for June. In western Europe specifically, the temperature was 3°C higher than the averages seen during those years.

The heat was accompanied by dryness, which contributed to wildfires in southwestern Europe.

Heat is responsible for more deaths in Europe each year than all other natural hazards combined. As temperatures broke records in several areas across the continent in June, more than 4,700 excess deaths were recorded in the countries of France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, with more excess death numbers in other countries expected to come.

While the El Niño phenomenon has contributed to rising sea temperatures this year, a separate study found that it did not play a role in Europe’s June heat wave.

“June 2026 underscored how profoundly the climate is changing. The result is increasingly intense heatwaves, a persistently warm ​ocean, and growing risks for people, ecosystems and infrastructure across Europe and beyond,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

A separate report published in late June by World Weather Attribution found that the heat wave that occurred at that time would have been “virtually impossible” without human-made climate change.

“Climate change is to blame” for the heat wave Europeans experienced last month, said Theo Keeping, co-author of the study and research associate at Imperial College London.

Clair Barnes, another co-author of the study and research associate at Imperial College London, agreed.

“We are not doing enough to slow the rate of global warming at the moment. As that rate of warming continues … we should expect to see record temperatures being exceeded more and more frequently,” Barnes said.

Earlier this year, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also demonstrated that the period from March 2025 to March 2026 was the hottest 12-month stretch on record for the United States. In March 2026, for example, temperatures were 10.5°C warmer than they were for the 20th-century average.

The first three months of 2026 were also the driest on record, resulting in 60 percent of the country facing drought conditions as of the start of spring — an outcome that could have major effects on this year’s wildfire season.