Europe baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs

Trees burned by wildfires in Rhodes, Greece, which was hit by the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU, according to the report. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

Scorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen.

Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).