Europe: Is it hotter, colder, wetter or drier than before?

eally, we know… some of you are getting tired of the climate discussion. Everybody has an opinion. It ranges from doomsday propaganda to ‘it was freezing yesterday!’

Maybe, as a non-scientist, you did a Google search once where you looked for climate data. Well, we are here to help and believe we have contributed to something that will give you a bit to talk about over Easter dinner.

VanderSat scientists contributed to the European State of the Climate 2018 document. More specifically, we generated the soil moisture product together with TU Wien and the Earth Observation Data Center. We look at European wet and dry conditions. Key take-away: 2018 saw the lowest annual soil moisture of the last 40 years. It really was the driest year we have recorded. How do we know? We have been collecting data since 1978.

You can download the summary below. There is some truly interesting stuff in there. Temperature, icecover, and so on. Spoiler: Europe was 1,2 degrees Celsius hotter than average, ice declined, part of the Mediterranean was soaking wet, the North was bone dry. All with very comprehensive infographics. Read a little so you have some facts to share during your next discussion.