London, Europe Brief News – 2023 brought record-breaking winter temperatures across Europe.
According to experts, the unusual phenomenon fits into the wider pattern of human-caused climate change.
Germany, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland are among the countries experiencing extraordinarily balmy winter, forcing some ski resorts to close down.
Residents of San Sebastián, in northern Spain, were this week photographed sunbathing by the beach, while the Czech Republic registered 19 degrees Celsius.
Hundreds of sites have seen temperature records smashed, from Switzerland to Poland and Hungary.
In France, temperatures climbed to nearly 25C (77F) in the southwest on New Year’s Day while normally bustling European ski resorts were deserted due to a lack of snow.
The Weather Service in Germany, where temperatures of more than 20C (68F) were recorded, said such a mild change of the year had not been observed in the country since records began in 1881.
Scientists have not yet analysed the specific ways in which climate change might have affected the recent high temperatures, but January’s warm weather fits into a long-term trend of rising temperatures due to human-caused global warming.
The record temperatures follow another year of extreme weather that scientists concluded was directly linked to global warming, including deadly heatwaves in Europe and India and flooding in Pakistan.
