Southern Europe has seen constant heat waves, forest fires and new heat records, and Tromsø in northern Norway has had a record number of summer days with temperatures above 20 degrees.

The average temperature set record highs worldwide in June, July and likely August as well, according to Tore Furevik, director of the Nansen Center and professor at the University of Bergen.

Early this summer, researchers warned of the consequences. Shellfish, plants and algae could be killed by the undersea heat wave in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Europe, according to British researcher Richard Unsworth.

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Heat and drought increase the risk of forest fires, and the fire raging in north-eastern Greece at the end of August was considered the largest ever observed in the EU.

The fire on the holiday island of Rhodes in July led to the largest evacuation ever of this type in Greece.

In Antarctica, the amount of sea ice has been far lower than ever previously recorded. The situation here and in the world’s oceans has alarmed scientists, who are asking whether climate change is about to accelerate.

“I think it’s a bit too early to say whether it’s accelerating,” says Furevik.

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