Summer 2024 became the hottest ever recorded in Europe, surpassing the historical benchmark of 2003, with prolonged periods of drought, consecutive days above 35 degrees, and impacts on rivers and agricultural harvests. Seven countries — Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria — experienced the hottest summer on record, although the distribution of extremes was heterogeneous between territories.
Portugal was not part of the average quarterly temperature records, but experienced unusual episodes. June recorded an average temperature of 22.40°C, approximately 2.05°C above the norm, being the fourth hottest since 1931, with only 6.9 millimeters of rain. July was classified as the driest of the century in mainland Portugal, with 0.8 millimeters of average precipitation, corresponding to 8 percent of the historical average. The heat wave from late June to July 11 was identified by IPMA as one of the most significant events since 1981, with Mora reaching 44.3°C in July.
In Germany, the preliminary average temperature stood at 19.6°C, the second highest since 1881, with Möckern-Drewitz reaching 41.8°C on June 27. The United Kingdom experienced its hottest summer since 1884, with an average of 16.5°C, while the Netherlands reached 19.3°C, surpassing the previous record from 2018. In Belgium, the quarterly average exceeded 20°C for the first time since measurements began in 1833, and Austria broke the 41°C barrier for the first time in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg.
The consequences exceeded the meteorological domain. The flow of the Rhine and Danube rivers suffered substantial reductions, restricting inland waterway freight transport. In the agricultural sector, the decline in European cereal harvests, especially corn, caused disruptions to domestic supply and opened space for a significant increase in imports from third-country markets, with emphasis on volumes from Argentina.
