Europe hit record high temperature in 2021: WMO

The World Meteorological Organisation confirmed yesterday that continental Europe recorded in 2021 its highest ever temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius, and warned that new extremes were expected. The searing heat on August 11, 2021, was nearly one degree Celsius higher than the previous record peak of 48C registered on July 10, 1977 in the Greek cities of Athens and Elefsina, it said. That 1977 record was not independently verified by the WMO. "An international panel of atmospheric scientists verified the temperature recorded by an automated weather station in Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicilia (Sicily)," it said.