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A heat wave across Europe is setting temperature records for the month of May. OK. Some people don't want to hear it, but here it is. Scientists say this kind of springtime heat is another sign of climate change. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
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ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Europe's cities are scorching under a heat dome of hot air pushed up from North Africa. From Rome to London, temperatures hover in the mid-90s and are predicted to top 100 in many places by the weekend. Seven deaths in France are blamed on the heat, including two people taking part in sporting events.
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BEARDSLEY: Sweaty residents and tourists try to cool off in public fountains or carry sun-blocking umbrellas. Parisian Soraya Bouhiza says she takes a bicycle to get air.
SORAYA BOUHIZA: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "Paris is not at all adapted to this kind of heat," she says. "There aren't enough green spaces, and few homes, offices and public transport have air conditioning. When it's hot, it's hell."
2025 was Europe's hottest year in history, and 2026 is shaping up to be worse. The European Union's Earth observation program, Copernicus, says Europe is heating twice as fast as the world average, some 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Here's why. Europe abuts the Arctic, which is the world's fastest-heating region. Europe's melting glaciers accelerate global warming because snow and ice reflect the sun, and the bare earth absorbs the heat. And changing atmospheric circulation around the continent, like the Gulf Stream, is intensifying heat waves. Forest fires are multiplying, and rivers are low. Eastern and Northern Europe are most affected.
Davide Faranda is a climate expert at France's National Centre of Scientific Research. Speaking on news channel France 24, he had a message for climate change skeptics.
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DAVIDE FARANDA: "Open your window and then look at the calendar," he says. "It's an impossible combination. You can't say, oh, it's summer, so it's hot. No. A hundred degrees in the spring is the result of global warming caused by humans."
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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