In today’s rapidly evolving climate, understanding how weather patterns shift and how extreme events unfold is essential to assessing risks, opportunities, and strategies for the future.
The European Extreme Events Climate Index (E3CI) is a valuable tool designed to analyze, quantify, and track unusual weather phenomena across Europe on a monthly basis. It helps measure the intensity of such events, identify emerging trends, and provide scientific and visual support for interpreting ongoing climate developments.
Summer 2025: the climate situation in Europe
With the close of the 2025 summer season, it is worth examining the main climatic patterns recorded across Europe. These observations not only reflect the conditions of the past months but also serve as a crucial reference point for future assessments and decision-making.
According to the Copernicus ECMWF bulletin, several key findings stand out:
- Europe experienced its fourth-warmest summer on record, with temperatures averaging +0.90°C above the 1991–2020 reference period.
- Temperatures were significantly higher than average across much of the continent, particularly in Western and Southeastern Europe as well as Turkey, while parts of Eastern Europe recorded values close to or below the norm.
When it comes to hydrological conditions (June–August 2025), two distinct patterns emerged:
- Drier-than-average conditions affected wide areas of Western and Southern Europe, the Balkans, the Black Sea region, and parts of Scandinavia and Finland.
- Wetter-than-average conditions were observed in Northern Italy, Eastern Spain, the Adriatic coast, much of Iceland, areas of Scotland and France, Fennoscandia, and a broad zone spanning the Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Overall, the data reveal a summer marked by diverse climatic dynamics and a highly heterogeneous European landscape.
Recognizing these patterns is the first step toward understanding climate variability and designing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. For more information on how to leverage the data, please contact us at e3ci@ifabfoundation.org