Highs some 20 degrees or more above average currently wrap across central and Eastern Europe, with the greatest anomalies centered on Scandinavia and parts of western Russia. A second lobe of intense heat is parked over eastern Russia along the shores of the East Siberian Sea.
Exceptional heat waves, which are becoming disproportionately more significant and frequent due to human-induced climate change, are the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in most of Europe and Asia.
The first signs of warmth began percolating over the weekend in Arctic Russia, as in Tyumyati, located along the Olenyak River at 72 degrees north latitude. It hit 88.3 degrees on Saturday, while Kotelny, an island in the Laptev and East Siberian Seas, managed 64 degrees. According to climate historian Maximiliano Herrera, it’s the first time on record Kotelny measured a reading so warm before the summer solstice.
Simultaneously, the warmth was established in Europe. Sunday marked the fourth-consecutive day that Germany reported a high above 95 degrees. A “tropical night” ensued Sunday evening, with 62 stations in Austria reporting lows above 20 degrees Celsius — 68 degrees Fahrenheit. A morning low of 74.7 degrees was observed in Daugavgriva, Latvia, tying a record for the country’s mildest overnight low.
Kunda later broke the record on Wednesday when highs hit 93.4 degrees. At 94.3 degrees, Narva in Estonia established a record for the country’s hottest June day in recorded history.
Lascari in Sicily, Italy, rose to 110.7 degrees on Monday, the hottest temperature measured anywhere in Europe so far in 2021.
Then on Tuesday, Finland rose to 92.5 degrees, missing its all-time June national record by roughly 0.3 degrees. Zhlobin, in southeastern Belarus, managed 96.3 degrees, a June national record. Belarus set a new national June record just a day later, hitting 98.1 degrees in Lelchitsy.