Madrid (EFE) km) to the south, according to an analysis by the consulting firm Callendar.
The study illustrates how extreme temperatures were in southwestern Europe, comparable to those in North Africa.
In Madrid, where the historical heat record was broken, the temperature was similar to that of Tissemsilt, an Algerian city located more than 500 km to the south.
In Italy, cities near the Alps, such as Milan and Turin, registered temperatures typical of Greece; and in France, Strasbourg, had temperatures typical of San Marino, on the Mediterranean coast.
“It was the hottest year ever recorded in many of the cities analyzed (about 100),” according to the director of Callendar, Thibault Laconde, who stressed that the comparison with the ten-year average highlights “the challenges that we are faced with adapting to a rapidly advancing climate warming.”
More than 200,000 deaths from heat in Europe
“Big changes are needed to make European cities liveable, as temperatures continue to rise and soon years like 2022 will become the norm,” said the expert.
In a statement, Callendar has highlighted that more than 20,000 people died in Western Europe due to the heat and that the high temperatures in the Old Continent contributed to worsen the forest fires that destroyed tens of thousands of hectares.
The analysis uses temperature data from ERA5, a database produced by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) that combines observations from weather stations and satellites with computer models of the atmosphere and oceans.
