This year’s summer in Western Europe and the Euro-Mediterranean region has been remarkable in several aspects. Early summer heat during much of June affected western European countries (in particular, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Portugal and Spain).
June 2017 was marked by high temperatures across Western Europe, with heatwaves triggering national heat-health plans and wildfires requiring evacuations in Portugal and Spain.
The contiguous United States (CONUS) was exceedingly warm east of the Rockies in February 2017, and is notable as being the 27th month in a row with more record highs than lows.
New South Wales, southeastern Australia, its hottest summer on record in 2017. Temperature records across the central and the eastern parts of Australia were broken, leading the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to issue a Special Climate Statement on the exceptional heat.
In May 2016, an all-time record high temperature of 51°C was recorded in Rajasthan, India, by some accounts the third-highest temperature ever documented globally. What was behind the extreme heat?