Record-high winter temperatures have swept across parts of Europe, bringing calls from activists for faster action against climate change while offering short-term respite to governments struggling with high gas prices.
Hundreds of sites have seen temperature records smashed in the past days, from Switzerland to Poland to Hungary, where Budapest registered its warmest Christmas Eve on record and the south of the country saw temperatures climb to 18.9 degrees Celsius on Jan. 1.
In France, where the night of Dec. 30 was the warmest since records began, temperatures climbed to nearly 25 degrees in the southwest on New Year’s Day, while normally bustling European ski resorts were deserted due to a lack of snow.