Since 14 September 2024, severe wildfires have been ravaging northern and central Portugal. The fires have affected over 10,000 hectares between Porto and Aveiro, and more than 5,000 firefighters are mobilised to battle the flames. Local authorities have issued warnings as the wildfire risk remains high, with the threat expected to persist...

Already on 13 September 2024, one week after its launch, the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite began delivering images of our planet.One of its first images shows Lighthouse Reef, an atoll of the Belize Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea. Home to the Great Blue Hole, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lighthouse Reef is a popular destination for...

A low-pressure system named Boris brought heavy rain to central Europe between 11 and 15 September, causing widespread flooding from Poland to Romania and at least seven casualties. In Romania, more than 5,000 homes have been evacuated due to severe flooding, with roads in eight provinces blocked or severely affected. In the Czech Republic, 38...

In the eastern Netherlands, the city of Enschede, visible in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image acquired on 20 July 2024, was once the site of a booming textile industry. The extensive use of groundwater for industrial operations depleted many of the area's natural water sources, allowing infrastructure to be built on the newly dry land. Since...

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image acquired on 10 August 2024 shows the Stubacher Sonnblickkees glacier in the federal state of Salzburg in Austria.  Situated at an altitude of 2,700 metres, the glacier has undergone considerable losses in size and mass due to high temperatures. In the last 25 years, it has lost 45 million cubic metres of ice,...

On 10 September 2024, the Vistula River in Warsaw, Poland, fell to a historic low. The record follows days of hydrological drought in the country, an unusual event for early September, when the rainy period typically begins. Rivers across the country are facing similar conditions, with 73% of national hydrological stations reporting unusually...

This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image, acquired on 11 September 2024, shows a cold front approaching the coasts of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.  Driven by an unusual weather system over Scandinavia and accompanied by cold Arctic air, the front is moving south across Europe, bringing strong winds, a sharp drop in temperatures and early snow...

Several countries in South America have been severely affected by a thick smoke cloud caused by the wildfires ravaging the Amazon rainforest since August 2024. In Brazil alone, the number of fires hotspots reached a total of 152,383 in August, a worrisome 103% increase over to the same period in 2023. The dense smoke has raised significant...

The Sahara Desert is one of the driest places on Earth. However, in September 2024, a large part of the area is expected to receive more than 500% of the typical monthly rainfall levels as a result of an unusual weather configuration. A comparison of these two Copernicus Sentinel-2 images acquired over Tanout, in Niger, on 14 September 2023 and...

The 2024 fire season has severely affected the Republic of North Macedonia.  According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), a component of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, more than 85,000 hectares have burned there since the beginning of the summer. In August, numerous wildfires blazed out of control across the...

On the northern coast of Poland lies the Hel Peninsula, a 35-kilometre-long sand bar extending into the Baltic Sea, which is visible in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image acquired on 14 May 2024. This area is a popular tourist destination, owing to its picturesque beaches, dunes, and pine forests. The town of Hel, at the tip of the peninsula, is...

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, acquired on 2 September 2024, shows what appears, from space, to be a dragon. In fact, the “dragon” is the Odeleite River, which flows through the Algarve region of Portugal. The river is a tributary of the Guadiana River, which rises in the Serra do Caldeirão mountain range. In China, the dragon is a symbol of...

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has recently released its latest monthly Climate Bulletin, which highlights that August 2024 was the joint-warmest August globally (together with August 2023), with an average ERA5 surface air temperature of 16.82°C, 0.71°C above the 1991-2020 average for August.  This data visualisation, based on C3S...

This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 30 August 2024, shows vineyards in the Veneto region of Italy. This area is famous for its production of prosecco, a sparkling white wine. Europe is an indisputed leader when it comes to the wine industry, representing 62% of global production and trade. However, the...

In August 2024, Hungary has been affected by a prolonged heatwave, with temperatures in some regions of the country reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius. High temperatures and a lack of rainfall have led to a severe drought, which has heavily impacted the country’s agriculture. The consequences of the drought on the soils in the south of the...

In late August 2024, heavy rains hit eleven districts in eastern Bangladesh, causing severe flooding. The floods, which affected around 5 million people, led to widespread electricity outages and the partial or total submersion of homes and infrastructure, as well as rural roads and agricultural fields. Flooded areas along the Meghna River, one...

Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, has been severely affected by a prolonged heat wave during the summer of 2024. Data from the Norwegian Centre for Data Service show that four observation stations in Svalbard recorded record-high average summer temperatures, with anomalies up to 3.0°C above normal. Svalbard Airport, located...

The Thousand Islands, or Kepulauan Seribu, visible in this image acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 6 August 2024, is an archipelago off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia. Renowned for their rich biodiversity, the coral reefs adorning their waters are home to many marine species. The islands also support unique flora and...

Northern Greece is facing a severe water crisis caused by a prolonged drought. The area has been affected by below-average rainfall for nearly three years, leading to widespread water shortages and significant impacts on local biodiversity. These images, acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites between August 2021 and August 2024,...

Wildfires activity in Bolivia have reached critical levels in August 2024, resulting in one of the worst fire seasons for the country since 2003, according to data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). On 28 August, local authorities reported 35,536 hotspots across the country, with more than 30,000 fires concentrated in the...