\n<\/p>\n
And as a growing number of European ski resorts at lower altitudes struggle to provide adequate snow cover for their early-season visitors, the WMO pointed to widely accepted peer-reviewed scientific data from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicating that the frequency of cold spells and frost days \u201cwill decrease\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong declines in glaciers, permafrost, snow cover extent, and snow seasonal duration at high latitudes\/altitudes are observed and will continue in a warming world,\u201d the IPCC said.<\/p>\n
According to the UN agency, New Year temperatures soared above 20 degrees Celsius (C) in many European countries, even in Central Europe.<\/p>\n
National and many local temperature records for December and January were also broken in several countries, from southern Spain to eastern and northern parts of Europe, WMO said.<\/p>\n
At Spain\u2019s Bilbao airport, a reading of 25.1C on 1 January smashed<\/strong> the previous all-time record established 12 months earlier, by 0.7C.<\/p>\n And in the eastern French city of Besan\u00e7on, which is usually chilly at this time of year, temperatures hit a new all-time high of 18.6 degrees on New Year\u2019s Day, 1.8C above<\/strong> the previous record, dating back to January 1918.<\/p>\n In the German city of Dresden, the 1961 New Year\u2019s Eve record of 17.7C was left trailing by the 19.4C reading taken on 31 December 2022, just as Poland\u2019s Warsaw residents saw in the new year with temperatures peaking at 18.9C, a staggering 5.1C higher<\/strong> than the previous all-time record for January, from 1993.<\/p>\n Further north, in Denmark\u2019s Lolland island, 2023 started with a new high of 12.6C, overtaking the 12.4C record set in 2005.<\/p>\n WMO attributed the warm spell in Europe to a high-pressure zone over the Mediterranean region which encountered an Atlantic low-pressure system.<\/p>\n Their interaction \u201cinduced a strong south-west flux that brought warm air from north-western Africa to middle latitudes\u201d, the UN agency explained, adding that this hotter-than-normal air \u201cwas further warmed when passing the North Atlantic, due to a higher-than-normal sea surface temperature\u201d.<\/p>\n Highlighting the influence of warmer sea waters on weather patterns, the WMO noted that in the eastern North Atlantic, sea surface temperature was 1C to 2C higher than normal, and \u201cnear the coasts of Iberia, even more\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAll this caused record-breaking heat in several European countries on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day,\u201d WMO concluded.<\/p>\n In recent years, Bosnia and Herzegovina in Eastern Europe, has been impacted by climate change-related extreme weather, from intense rainfall to heat waves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The weather extremes experienced in Europe are projected to carry on increasing, the WMO warned, as it referenced recent analysis published with \u201chigh confidence\u201d by the influential UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). \u201cRegardless of future levels of global warming, temperatures will rise in all European areas at a rate exceeding global mean temperature changes, similar to past observations,\u201d the IPCC said.<\/p>\n According to the IPCC\u2019s regional fact sheet for Europe, \u201cthe frequency and intensity of hot extremes, including marine heatwaves, have increased in recent decades and are projected to keep increasing regardless of the greenhouse gas emissions scenario\u201d.<\/p>\n The panel\u2019s experts further warned that \u201ccritical thresholds\u201d for the environment and humans \u201care projected to be exceeded for global warming of 2C and higher\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHighs and lows<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Sign of the times<\/strong><\/h2>\n