The Hot Summer of 2010: Redrawing the Temperature Record Map of Europe
The summer of 2010 was exceptionally warm in eastern
Europe and large parts of Russia. We provide evidence
that the anomalous 2010 warmth that caused adverse
impacts exceeded the amplitude and spatial extent of the
previous hottest summer of 2003. 'Mega-heatwaves' such
as the 2003 and 2010 events broke the 500-yr long
seasonal temperature records over approximately 50% of
Europe. According to regional multi-model experiments,
the probability of a summer experiencing 'megaheatwaves'
will increase by a factor of 5 to 10 within the
next 40 years. However, the magnitude of the 2010 event
was so extreme that despite this increase, the occurrence
of an analogue over the same region remains fairly
unlikely until the second half of the 21st century.
Publication Date: 2011
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