Europe’s melted snow due to ‘winter heatwave’ seen from SPACE
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New satellite images reveal the effect of Europe’s ‘winter heat wave’ in the heat of the continent’s winter ski season.
An image posted by the European Union’s Copernicus program shows a marked lack of snow around the Swiss town of Altdorf, which is close to ski resorts.
In Altdorf, the temperature reached 66.5 °F (19.2 °C) on New Year’s Day and did not fall below 60.9 °F (16.1 °C) overnight, breaking an earlier record set in 1864.
TikTok videos also reveal the disappointing snow cover at several ski spots in the Alps, with stark swaths of land exposed by melted ice.
This image, taken by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on January 1, 2023, shows Altdorf, a Swiss town where temperatures reached 19.2°C.
The new satellite image was created by Sentinel 2, one of the Earth observation satellites that are part of the Copernicus programme.
According to the program, 2023 has begun “a historic heat wave” hitting Europe, with many countries recording the warmest temperature on record on January 1, possibly due to human-induced climate change.
Hundreds of temperature records have been broken and numerous cities across the continent experienced summer temperatures.
‘Copernicus open data and services are essential for monitoring the effects of climate change and extreme temperatures on alpine environments.’
According to meteorologists, European countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic, had the warmest January day ever measured on New Year’s Day.
Abed in Denmark reached 54.6°F (12.6°C), while Korbielow in Poland reached 66.2°F (19°C) and Javornik in the Czech Republic reached 67.2°F (19.6°C).
Bilbao in Spain also experienced its warmest day on record in January on January 1, with a temperature of 25.1°C.
According to meteorologists, European countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic, had the warmest January day ever measured on New Year’s Day.
Warsaw in Poland also reached 66 °F (18.9 °C), breaking its own January record by more than 9 °F (5 °C).
The data was collected by Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian who runs the Twitter account “Extreme temperatures around the world” (@extremetemps).
Herrera told the Washington Post that the period of extremely hot weather was “totally insane” and “absolute madness.”
It is “the most extreme event ever seen in European climatology,” Herrera said. “There’s nothing around here.”
British meteorologist Scott Duncan also said: ‘The intensity and magnitude of the heat in Europe at the moment is difficult to comprehend.
“We have just observed the warmest January day on record for many countries in Europe.
‘Truly unprecedented in modern archives.’
2023 is expected to be one of the warmest years on record globally, partly due to the absence of the cooling ‘La Niña’ weather pattern.
La Niña – Spanish for “the girl” – occurs when stronger equatorial winds, blowing from east to west, lower sea surface temperatures over the eastern equatorial part of the central Pacific.
Met Office has said 2023 will be the 10th consecutive year in which global temperatures will be at least 1.8°F (1°C) above pre-industrial levels.
The average global temperature for 2023 is expected to be 2.16°F (1.2°C) higher than the average for the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), it claims.
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2022 will be the warmest year on record for the UK, the Met Office said.
The year-round average temperature is on track to beat the previous all-time high of 49.7°F (9.88°C) set in 2014, the preliminary data shows.
The exact figure will be confirmed in the new year, but the Met Office is confident that 2022 will set a new 139-year annual mean temperature record.
Since records began in 1884, all 10 years with the highest annual temperature in the UK since 2003
It blames “continued warmer-than-average conditions” throughout the year, while record-breaking heat waves in July also pushed the average up.
If preliminary data is correct, 2022 will top the list with the highest British average temperature since records began in 1884.
Currently, the years that make up that list are, in order, 2014, 2006, 2020, 2011, 2007, 2017, 2003, 2018, 2004, and 2002.
The Met Office also said UK temperatures in 2022 remained above average for every month of the year except December, which has been cooler than average so far.
2022 saw the coldest first two weeks of December since 2010 – an ‘abnormally cold start’ to the month.
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