'June was hottest month ever recorded on Earth'

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded with soaring temperatures worldwide capped off by a record-breaking heatwave across Western Europe, satellite data showed on Tuesday.

Global readings taken by the EU-ran Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed European temperatures were around 2 deg C hotter than normal, and globally Earth was 0.1 deg C hotter than the previous June record.

The heatwave last week smashed national records for the hottest single day as scorching weather spread across Europe from the Sahara.

It was so intense that temperatures were as much as 10 deg C higher than normal across France, Germany, northern Spain and Italy.

The Copernicus team said it was difficult to attribute the record-breaking month "directly" to climate change, but a separate analysis on Tuesday from an international team of scientists said global warming had made the heatwave at least five times more likely.

Merging satellite data with historic temperature charts, C3S found June 2019 was 3 deg C hotter across Europe than the baseline average between 1850-1900.

"Our data show that the temperatures over the southwestern region of Europe during the last week of June were unusually high," said Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of C3S.

"Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change."