New data released Tuesday found the average temperature in Europe for June 2019 was higher than any other June on record.
According to the data, the average temperature in June was more than 2 C above normal.
The data was provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Union.
According to a news release issued by C3S, the short heat wave in Europe was caused by a mass of hot air coming from the Sahara desert.
While the heat was not as persistent as during the summer of 2018, CS3 says it was “intense.”
Five days of unusually high temperatures followed days with record-breaking temperatures farther east in Europe and led to the month as a whole being around 1 C above the previous record for June, set in 1999.
The average was also about 1 C higher than expected based on the trend in recent decades, the C3S data says.
WATCH: European heat wave hottest ever in over a century
The numbers show that the global average temperature for June 2019 was also the highest on record for the month.
According to the data, it was about 0.1 C higher than that of the previous warmest June in 2016, which followed a strong El Niño event.
The CS3 data also suggests temperatures across Europe were unseasonably warm at the end of the month.
Compared to the average for the same five-day period from 1981 to 2010, temperatures of 6 to 10 C above normal occurred over most of France and Germany, northern Spain, northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic.
The data also shows spikes in European average June temperatures of more than 1 degree C above normal have occurred “several times” during the last 150 years, including in 1901, 1917 and 1999.
The temperature in June 2019 was exceptional, however, because the spike came on top of a general rise of around 1.5 C or more in European temperatures over the past 100 years.
“The rise in European temperature is notably higher than that of around 1 C seen globally,” the release reads.
WATCH: Thousands in Germany protest inaction on climate change
While CS3 says it is difficult to directly attribute the heat wave to climate change, extreme weather events are expected to become more common as the planet continues to warm under increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.
“Although local temperatures may have been lower or higher than those forecast, our data show that the temperatures over the southwestern region of Europe during the last week of June were unusually high,” head of C3S Jean-Noël Thépaut said in the press release. “Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change.”
Deadly heatwaves
A University of Hawaii study published earlier this month in the journal Nature Climate Change found that by 2100, 75 per cent of the world’s population will face deadly heatwaves.
A team of researchers examined 1,949 deadly heat waves from around the world since 1980 to look for trends, determine when heat is so severe it kills and forecast the future.
They found that nearly one in three people now experience 20 days a year when the heat reaches deadly levels.
However, the study predicts that up to three in four people worldwide will endure that kind of heat by the end of the century if climate change continues unabated.
Record-high temperatures in France
On Friday, France registered its highest temperature since records began as the death toll rose from a heat wave suffocating much of Europe.
WATCH: Fire Burns in Vauvert amid record-breaking heat wave in France
The mercury hit 45.9 C in Gallargues-le-Monteux, in the southern Provence region, weather forecaster Meteo France said, nearly two degrees above the previous high of 44.1 C recorded in August 2003.
Twelve towns in southern France saw new all-time highs on Friday and three experienced temperatures above 45 degrees, it said.
Mussels cooking in their shells in North Carolina
Meanwhile, in the U.S., CNN reported that a June heat wave in northern California’s Bodega Bay caused thousands of mussels to fry to death in their shells.
Jackie Sones, a research co-ordinator at Bodega Marine Reserve, told CNN she had never seen anything like it in her 15 years working at Bodega Bay.
“When I was approaching the field site, I could see right away that hundreds of mussels were dead,” Sones said.
Sones said that while she was conducting research, she discovered it was actually tens of thousands of mussels that were dead along the shore.
WATCH: Heat wave keeps Europe sweating as it breaks records with no signs of stopping
Sones told CNN she had seen similar cases where small patches of mussels die off due to heat, but had never seen something this “extreme.”
According to Sones, the muscles likely experienced temperatures close to 100 F (37 C)
Northern California experienced a record-breaking heatwave in June, with temperatures reaching more than 37 C in some areas.
Heat wave in Montreal
In Montreal, residents are bracing for a heat wave, with higher than average temperatures expected over the next few days.
According to Environment Canada, temperatures could reach 32 C by Thursday.
In 1963, the high in Montreal was 34.4 C.
WATCH: Death toll rises as Quebec heat wave continues (July, 2018)
While temperatures likely won’t be record-breaking, authorities are still advising residents to be careful and to watch for the symptoms of heat stroke.
The weather agency has forecast rain on Friday, which is expected to cool temperatures back to around 27 C by Saturday.
-With files from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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