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Europe Had Its Coldest April in Almost Two Decades

Another sign that global warming is changing our climate in unprecedented ways.

Europe Had Its Coldest April in Almost Two Decades
Image used for representational purpose. (Source: Bloomberg)

Europe experienced its coldest April in almost two decades last month, another sign that global warming is changing our climate in unprecedented ways. 

Global temperatures in April were about 0.2 degrees Celsius higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus said in its monthly temperature report. Parts of northeastern Canada, northwestern Russia and the Middle East were much hotter than usual, the agency said. 

For the 10th consecutive year, Arctic sea ice extent was smaller than the average over the past two decades. April typically marks the start of the melting season. Only some parts of the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, as well as the southernmost part of the Barents Sea, posted above average sea ice conditions. 

The first months of 2021 have seen global temperatures hover close to the average for the past two decades, though parts of the world have seen extremely hot or extremely cold spells. Last year tied with 2016 for the warmest on record. The past decade was also the hottest in at least 2,000 years. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.