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European Climate

Europe is generally characterized by a temperate climate. Most of Western Europe has an Oceanic climate, in the Köppen climate classification, featuring cool to warm summers and cool winters with frequent overcast skies. Southern Europe has a distinctively Mediterranean climate, which features warm to hot, dry summers and cool to mild winters and frequent sunny skies. Central-eastern Europe is classified as having a Continental climate, which features warm to hot summers and cold winters. The climate of western Europe is strongly conditioned by the Gulf Stream, which keeps mild air (for the latitude) over Northwestern Europe in the winter months, especially in Ireland, the United Kingdom and coastal Norway.

Parts of the central European plains have a hybrid oceanic/continental climate. Four seasons occur in most of Europe away from the Mediterranean. The coastal lowlands of the Mediterranean Basin have more of a wet and dry season pattern, the rainy season extends from October to February while the dry season is mainly noticeable in the summer months where precipitation can, in some years, become extremely scarce.

Most of Europe sees seasonal temperatures consistent with temperate climates in other parts of the world, though summers north of the Mediterranean Sea are cooler than most temperate climates experience in summer. Among the cities with a population over 100,000 people in Europe, the coldest winters are mostly found in Russia, with daily highs in winter averaging 0 °C (32 °F), while the mildest winters in the continent are in southern Portugal, southern Spain, and in coastal areas of the islands of Sicily and Crete. On the Atlantic Ocean, the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands in the European Macaronesia have by far the mildest winters of any place in Europe.

The hottest summers of the continent occur in cities and towns of the hinterland of southern Spain: July average highs in this region are 36.9 °C (98.4 °F) in Cordoba and 36.2 °C (97.2 °F) in Seville. The highest extreme temperatures have been recorded in Athens with a controversial 48.0 °C (118.4 °F)[6] and inside the southern valleys of the Iberian Peninsula, with towns such as Amareleja (Portugal) and Montoro (Spain) recording temperatures of 47.4 °C (117.3 °F)[7] and 47.3 °C (117.1 °F)[8] respectively.