Weather forecasters in France have said that 31 December could be among the warmest day and could boost the national average for the year that has already been described as the warmest ever.
“We will most certainly have the mildest 31 December since measurements began in 1947,” say sweating forecasters at the national weather service, Météo France.
The average temperature for the whole country could exceed 8 degrees Celsius. That means 23 degrees Celsius in Dax in the southwest and 16 degrees Celsius in Paris.
In the past 75 years, the recorded temperature on New Year’s Day has exceeded a national average of 8 degrees Celsius on only three occasions but the Christmas period was also unusually mild this year, with the average temperature on 24 and 25 December being the highest ever recorded and the first few days of January 2023 are expected to remain particularly mild.
Climate change, linked to human activities and in particular the burning of fossil fuels, has already caused global warming of 1.2°C, and as a result, all regions of the globe are affected, with the subtropical air arriving in France much warmer than it was thirty or fifty years ago.
Over the next few days, the whole of Europe is likely to be affected by this winter warmth and even higher temperatures than in France could be recorded in Germany, Poland or the Baltic States.
Although less difficult for people to bear than heatwaves, exceptionally mild winter periods have many negative consequences, particularly for endangered species and ecosystems.
On the economic level, high temperatures reduce heating bills but penalise other sectors, such as the seasonal ski industry.
The national union representing ski lift operators and resorts announced on Tuesday that half of the French ski slopes are closed due to a lack of snow.
While the effects of global warming are increasingly visible, global emissions of CO2, the main greenhouse gas, are expected to continue to rise in 2022.
In France, data show that the country hardly reduced its emissions during the first nine months of the year, mainly because of the shutdown of many nuclear reactors for maintenance, which led to record consumption of fossil gas.
The transport sector, the largest emitter of CO2, also continues to see an increase in emissions.
Story was adapted from RFI.
