EUROPE suffered a huge number of climate extremes as the continent was hit by heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and flooding last year, with scientists warning that disasters are set to get more frequent and intense.

Extreme weather affected human health and caused billions of pounds in economic losses, experts from the EU’s Copernicus climate change service (C3S) and the UN’s world meteorological service (WMO) said as they launched a report on Europe’s climate in 2023.

The report details the impacts of global warming, including a “beyond extreme” marine heatwave off British and Irish coasts, the continent’s largest-ever wildfire and exceptional glacier melt.