Germany experienced nearly twice as many days of extreme heat in the past year as it would have without climate change, according to a new analysis published on Friday.
The report was written by the World Weather Attribution initiative, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and the non-profit Climate Central.
The researchers define extreme heat days as those when temperatures exceeded 90% of recorded averages between 1991 and 2020. Between May 2024 and May 2025, Germany saw 50 such days — 24 of which were directly linked to human-induced climate change.
To determine the impact of global warming, scientists simulated a climate without human-made emissions and compared it to actual temperature data.
Climate change caused at least 30 extra extreme heat days for roughly 4 billion people — about half the world’s population — during the same period. In 195 of 247 countries and regions studied, the number of extreme heat days at least doubled due to global warming.
The worst climate-driven heat event in Europe occurred in June 2024, when a heatwave swept from Greece through Romania and towards Asia and the Middle East.
Source: dpa.com
