Air temperatures in Europe are more likely to break record highs than to fall below record lows for any given day, thanks to climate change.

Martin Beniston of the University of Geneva in Switzerland analysed daily temperatures over the past 60 or so years from 30 climate observation stations across Europe. He found that the ratio of days per year with record high temperatures to days with record lows increased from about 1:1 in the 1950s to nearly 1.5:1 in 2013. The ratio has risen sharply since the turn of the millennium, despite the observed slowdown in the rate of warming over the past 15 years.

In an already warm climate, even a small shift in mean temperature leads to a marked rise in the number of extremely warm days, Beniston argues.

Climatic Change http://doi.org/zqr (2015)