Jelena Popovic normally loves summer and everything it brings, including the heat. But this year it was too much.
“This summer it was too hot, we couldn’t walk in the city. It was only pleasant when we were swimming,” said Ms Popovic, who lives in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.
“It was like a tropical summer, as if we were living in Africa and not Europe.”
This observation applies to a large part of the Balkans, a region of south-eastern Europe accustomed to hot summers, but where this one broke records with repeated heat waves and almost completely dry months of July and August.
According to experts, The summer of 2024 in the Balkans was the hottest since measurements began more than 130 years agoMeteorologists say long periods of temperatures above 30°C, which do not drop below 20°C at night, have pushed average temperatures to new highs.
“Summer is normally synonymous with an exchange of hot days with high temperatures, then a break after five or six days of rain and thunderstorms”said Serbian meteorologist Nedeljko Todorovic.
“But that only happened in June. Almost all of July and August saw no rain while high temperatures persisted.”
This summer was the hottest ever recorded on Earth
Climate scientists say global warming, caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, has led to rising temperatures, with the world recently recording 13 consecutive monthly heat records.
The European climate service Copernicus reported last Friday that the summer of 2024 was also the hottest ever recorded on Earth, increasing the likelihood that this year will be the hottest ever measured by humanity.
According to Goran Pejanovic of the Serbian Hydrometeorological Service, South-Eastern Europe was “trapped” this summer by a warm subtropical air mass coming from West Africa and the Mediterranean Sea region.
“We have experienced four heat waves… the most intense, in July, lasted from July 5 to 21, for almost three weeks without a drop of rain”he said. Overall, this summer in Serbia was 3.3 degrees warmer than average, he added.
In Slovenia, an Alpine country bordering Austria and Italy, average summer temperatures have risen by 2.5 degrees compared to the period before 2020, according to the country’s environment agency.
The summer in Slovenia passed without the cooler periods that are normal for this mountainous country, according to the report. Temperature records were not recorded in the lowlands, but rather at higher altitudes in the Julian Alps, while temperatures across the country remained above 30°C in early September.
“All records have been broken” in Bosnia also in terms of the number of very hot nights and days. In some areas, these temperatures have tripled compared to last year, which held a previous record, said Bakir Krajinovic of the Bosnian Hydrometeorological Institute.
Neighbouring Croatia reported the highest temperatures ever recorded in the Adriatic Sea, which also reached 30°C in some areas.
Heat waves are getting longer and hotter
2023 had already been the hottest year ever recorded globallywith human-caused climate change and the natural weather phenomenon El Niño, which is warming parts of the Pacific, having combined to bring sweltering temperatures.
Heatwaves are stronger, longer and more frequent, and some parts of the world are also experiencing longer and more frequent droughts. The planet has warmed by an average of about 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.
In the Balkans, hot weather has dried up rivers in Bosnia and Serbia, sparked wildfires in Croatia, North Macedonia and Albania, wilted crops and burned farmland across the region.
The increasingly warm nights prevent the human body, as well as that of animals and even plants, from cooling down to face the day. This situation is even more serious in large cities, where concrete buildings diffuse at night the heat accumulated during the day.
Meteorologists in Montenegro reported that in some cities temperatures reached 29°C during the night.
Hydroelectricity problems and devastating fires
While beneficial for the tourism industry along Albania’s coast, the very hot summer has been detrimental to agriculture and electricity production. Nearly 98% of Albania’s electricity comes from hydroelectric plants that have been crippled by a months-long drought.
North Macedonia had to deal with around 2,000 forest fires over the past three months, three times more than in 2023. The fires have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of forests. Emergency Situations Officer Stojanch Angelov warned that “It’s not over… if it doesn’t rain soon, we’ll have forest fires until November.”
Dozens of villages and towns in Serbia have faced drinking water restrictions due to drought. Soldiers have been hauling water tanks into the mountains in the southwest of the country for thirsty cattle and horses.
In the north, the Rusanda salt lake, whose mud is used in medical therapies, has completely dried up, turning into a gray surface similar to the moon. Jovica Mudric, from the local medical center, said water had to be poured from reservoirs in order to make mud for patients.
“It’s not the first time this has happened, but never like this year,” he said. “I know everyone loves summer, but we could use a little rain.”
Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, North Macedonia, Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, Sabina Niksic in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Predrag Milic in Podgorica, Montenegro, contributed to this report.
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