Lille to Pau, Cherbourg in Spain, in the summer of 2022 many cities have changed their climate

The latter analyzed the temperatures of cities in Western Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy) last year and compared them to normal temperatures over the period 1991 to 2020.

Result: these cities suffered on average temperatures of 1,38 ° C higher than normal and similar to those normally recorded in places located 425 kilometers further south.

These data visible on a map show that Lille suffered temperatures equivalent to those normally recorded in Pau, Cherbourg to those of Gijón (Spain), Perpignan to those of the Athens region and Strasbourg to those of San Marino...

"What these comparisons show is the extent of the anomaly that we had in 2022 and on the other hand the titanic work that will be necessary to adapt cities to climate change", underlines Thibault Laconde, general manager. de Callendar, a company specializing in the assessment of climate risks, based in the Paris region.

“Cities are built around their historical climate and when you encounter temperatures that are so abnormal, you cannot transform Perpignan into something like Athens overnight,” he points out. "All the architecture, all the town planning, the infrastructures, even the habits of the inhabitants are to be resumed", underlines Mr. Laconde to AFP.

The past eight years have been the hottest on record globally, all exceeding pre-industrial era temperatures by more than a degree, according to the latest annual report from the European climate change program Copernicus (C3S) released in January.

In Europe, the continent with the fastest observed warming, 2022 ranks as the “second hottest year” but the summer months are a new record for the whole continent.