Record High Temperatures Across Europe Throughout April - NYT

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PARIS, April 30 — The month of April was so warm and so dry across Western Europe that it rewrote the weather record books in country after country, national weather services said today, as hot air masses from Africa and the effects of a changing climate combined to drive up temperatures and drive away rain.

April 2007 was the eighth consecutive month of higher-than-normal temperatures in Germany, and the 13th straight month of unusually warm conditions in France.

“The sustained period of above-average temperatures across a number of countries is undoubtedly linked to global warming,” said Patrick Galois, a forecaster at Metéo France. May, June and July are also expected to be unseasonably warm, Mr. Galois said.

The British Met Office said last week that April — and the 12 months ending in April — were set to be the warmest in the 350 years that records of what is known as the Central England Temperature have been kept. Definitive figures are to be released on Tuesday, a Met Office spokesman said. In Italy, Luca Ciceroni, a meteorologist for Sky Italia’s 24-hour news channel, said in a telephone interview that the month will probably end as the hottest April on record there.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/world/europe/30cnd-europe.html?_r=1&oref=slogin