It was vital to cool off in Messina, Sicily, last year, which hit a record 48.8CThe last seven years globally were the seven warmest on record “by a clear margin”, according to the European Union’s climate monitoring service. Last year was the fifth warmest, with an average global temperature 1.1 to 1.2C above the period from 1850-1900. The Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed that 2021 had joined the run of warm years despite the cooling effect last year of the natural La Niña weather phenomenon. SponsoredIt also noted in its annual assessment that Europe had been hit by several extreme weather events last summer, including severe floods in July which killed more than 200 people in Germany and Belgium. The European temperature record was broken in Sicily, where 48.8C was reported in August, 0.8C above the previous high,

Source: The Times January 11, 2022 01:44 UTC