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THIS JUNE WAS the hottest on record for western Europe due to the “exceptional heatwave” that hit the region.
Europe has been sizzling in high temperatures in recent weeks and new data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed that for the west of the continent, it was the hottest June of modern records.
“June 2025 saw an exceptional heatwave impact large parts of western Europe, with much of the region experiencing very strong heat stress,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the service.
“This heatwave was made more intense by record sea surface temperatures in the western Mediterranean,” Burgess said.
“In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe.”
Globally, June 2025 was the third-warmest June on record.
Most of western and central Europe experienced warmer-than-average air temperatures last month.
Western Europe experienced an average temperature of 20.49°C, which is 2.81°C above the 1991–2020 average for June.
It narrowly beat the previous June record set in 2003 of 20.43°C.
The Copernicus report notes that two major heatwaves in mid- and late June 2025 affected large parts of western and southern Europe, with much of the region experiencing feels-like temperatures surpassing 38°C, corresponding to ‘very strong heat stress’.
Beyond Europe, the regions where temperatures were most above average were the United States, northern Canada, central Asia, eastern Asia, and west Antarctica.
The regions where temperatures were most below average were southern South America, with record cold conditions recorded in Argentina and Chile, and India and east Antarctica also had below-average temperatures.
The month was wetter than average in some areas, including Ireland, Denmark and the northern UK, but drier than average on the whole for much of western and southern Europe.
Arctic sea ice extent was 6% below average, the second lowest monthly extent for June in the 47-year satellite record. Antarctic sea ice extent was 9% below average, its third lowest value for the month of June.
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