Europe's Record-Breaking Heatwave Will Likely Be an 'Average' Summer In the Next 20 Years

The Met Office's Hadley Centre has forecast an average summer in central Europe will be more than 4°C hotter by 2100 than it was before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale.

Researchers said they are confident in their analysis because they found a "very satisfactory" alignment between recorded average temperatures since 1850 and the figures that were predicted by computer models.

The analysis shows that "even if countries meet their commitments to reduce emissions they have made so far, the situation is still set to get worse, with weather in Europe predicted to become even more extreme than seen this summer".

Almost two-thirds of Europe and much of England endured a drought over the summer that hit food and power production, driven in large part by hot and dry weather. The extreme heat in July broke records in England, Scotland and France.

This warning coincides with other studies that predict that countries in the mid-latitudes - including the UK, the US and most of the European Union and central Asia - will experience deadly heatwaves every year by 2100.