A year of climate extremes in 2025, including a heat wave near the Arctic, a warmer Mediterranean, and widespread wildfires and floods across Europe, underscored the influence of human activity on the continent's climate, according to a scientific report released on Wednesday.
The report found that at least 95 percent of Europe recorded above-average temperatures in 2025, with wildfires burning more than a million hectares—the largest area on record. Glaciers lost mass and snow cover was below average, all consistent with global warming driven largely by burning fossil fuels.
Europe is described as the fastest-warming continent, with about 0.56 degrees Celsius (roughly 1 degree Fahrenheit) of warming over the past 30 years, compared with an average global increase of 0.27 degrees Celsius, according to the study produced by a European meteorological center in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization, with input from more than 100 scientists.
The region’s proximity to the Arctic amplifies vulnerability to climate change, a point highlighted by experts involved in the study, who noted that Arctic warming has global implications and intensifies extreme weather elsewhere.
Arctic warming over the past three decades has reached about 0.75 degrees Celsius. In 2025, the Greenland ice sheet saw significant mass loss, and Iceland’s glaciers experienced their second-largest loss on record, contributing to broader concerns about sea-level rise and reduced planetary albedo.
Melting ice and snow reduce the Earth’s reflectivity, accelerating warming. The report also noted fewer freezing temperatures across Europe and extreme heat events in parts of Scandinavia, with days exceeding 30 degrees Celsius even within the Arctic Circle and a three-week heat wave in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Rising temperatures affected European hydrology, with May marking drought conditions across much of the continent, and about 70 percent of rivers recording below-average flows, contributing to one of the driest years for soil moisture since 1992.
Sea surface temperatures reached record highs for a fourth consecutive year, including strong marine heat waves in the Mediterranean and the Norwegian Sea. The findings were described as a stark illustration of rapid climate change and the demand for more urgent action.