Drought concerns rise in Europe as May reported to be the world’s second-hottest on record
North-western Europe has faced an exceptionally dry spring, coinciding with May 2025 being the second warmest May on record globally, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Many European countries, including the UK, are experiencing drought conditions, raising concerns about water shortages unless significant summer rains arrive. Farmers have already begun reporting crop failures, News.Az reports citing The Guardian.
Copernicus data shows May 2025 had an average surface air temperature of 15.79°C—0.53°C above the 1991-2020 May average and 1.4°C higher than the pre-industrial (1850-1900) baseline. This ends a streak of 21 months out of 22 with global temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, noted that although May 2025 briefly fell below the 1.5°C threshold, warming will likely push it above again soon, reflecting ongoing climate change.
The 1.5°C target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement is measured over decades, so a single month exceeding it doesn’t mean the goal is missed but highlights the escalating climate emergency. The past decade has seen every year among the ten hottest since records began in 1850.
Dry conditions in May 2025 extended beyond Europe, affecting northern and central Europe, southern Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye, parts of North America, the Horn of Africa, central Asia, southern Australia, and regions of southern Africa and South America. Northwest Europe recorded its lowest precipitation and soil moisture since at least 1979.
Additionally, sea surface temperatures in the north-eastern Atlantic reached record highs in May, per Copernicus.
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