PARIS: June marked the hottest month ever recorded in 12 countries — including Pakistan, Spain, Nigeria, and Japan — while 26 others experienced exceptionally high temperatures, according to an AFP analysis of Copernicus data, the European climate monitor.
An estimated 790 million people across Europe, Asia, and Africa lived through their warmest June on record. Meanwhile, nations such as the United Kingdom, China, France, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia recorded their second hottest June.
Climate experts attribute the increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves to global warming. Below is a summary of the record-breaking heat observed in June:
Central Asia: hottest spring on record
Temperatures soared to record highs for June in Pakistan, home to a population of 250 million, and in Tajikistan, which has 10 million people.
The June records followed an exceptionally hot spring in Central Asia. Several countries including Pakistan and Tajikistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan experienced their warmest spring (April-June) ever recorded.
Europe: 3°C above the norm
An early summer heatwave scorched western and southern Europe at the end of June, bringing sweltering heat to the Paris region in France and parts of Belgium and the Netherlands that are not used to such temperatures.
Around 15 countries, including Switzerland, Italy, and every Balkan state, saw temperatures rise to three degrees Celsius above the June average between 1981 and 2010. Spain, Bosnia, and Montenegro had their hottest June to date.
Asia-Pacific: record heats on land and at sea
Japan also had its hottest June on record since data collection began in 1898, with record temperatures logged in 14 cities during a heatwave.
The temperature of coastal waters was 1.2°C higher than usual, tying with June 2024 for the highest since data collection began in 1982, the weather agency said on 1 July.
Japan’s summer last year was already the joint hottest on record, equalling the level seen in 2023, followed by the warmest autumn since records began 126 years ago. Japan’s beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate, or sometimes not fully blossoming because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering, experts say.
South Korea and North Korea also experienced their warmest June since records began. Temperatures in both countries were 2°C higher than the recorded average.
In China, 102 weather stations logged the hottest-ever June day, with some measuring temperatures above 40°C, according to state media.
Sub-Saharan Africa: almost as hot as 2024
In Nigeria, the world’s sixth most populous country with 230 million people, temperatures rose to June 2024’s record-breaking levels.
Other parts of central and eastern Africa were also exceptionally hot. June was the second hottest month on record after 2024 in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
In South Sudan, temperatures passed the normal June average by 2.1°C, an exceptional deviation from the norm in a region of the world where temperatures tend to be more stable.
The impoverished nation plagued by insecurity is ill-equipped to counter increasing environmental disasters and had already struggled with a devastating heatwave in March, typically the hottest month of the year. Students collapsing from the heat in the capital Juba prompted the government to close schools and order citizens to remain at home.
“Extreme weather and climate change impacts are hitting every single aspect of socio-economic development in Africa and exacerbating hunger, insecurity and displacement,” warned the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in May.
