On 11 August, a large wildfire burned out of control in Attica, Greece. The fire has affected at least 10,000 hectares and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.  This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, acquired on 12 August at 09:05 UTC (12:05 Greek local time), shows the ongoing blaze a few kilometres from the centre of Athens. It combines...

During the summer of 2024, the Svalbard Archipelago (in Arctic Norway) is confronted with a new record episode of ice sheet melting.  According to the Laboratory of Climatology and Topoclimatology at the University of Liège, in early August, snow and ice melting on the surface of the Svalbard ice caps reached the highest levels ever recorded,...

Over the past few weeks, a phytoplankton bloom has been observed in the northern Adriatic Sea.  High temperatures and freshwater inputs from recent heavy rainfall have favoured the bloom. The freshwater input has reduced the sea surface salinity, creating an ideal environment for the rapid proliferation of phytoplankton. Rising temperatures...

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has recently released its latest monthly Climate Bulletin, which highlights that July 2024 was the second warmest July on record globally. Air temperatures reached 16.91°C, 0.68°C above the 1991-2020 average for July, and only 0.04°C lower than the previous high set in July 2023.      This data...

On 7 August 2024, Canada has been affected by an intense heatwave and several wildfires. The temperature in Inuvik, an Arctic town located less than 100 km from the Arctic Ocean, reached a record high of 34.8°C.  At the same time, several wildfires were ongoing in the region. According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of...