Potatoes from Andrew Branton’s farm tell you everything you need to know about the weather in 2023: They’re rotten.

His farm in Lincolnshire gets a year’s worth of rain from late September to January. Many of his fields have been flooded for weeks, making it impossible to harvest the potato crop – the tubers now rot in the soggy ground.

The floodwaters are now receding, but for weeks the amount of water in many of his fields – about 2,400 tons per acre – has made the soil too wet and compacted to plant spring crops.

“Even if it was physically feasible, it’s not economically feasible,” Mr. Blanton said.

He is not alone. According to the most comprehensive analysis of Europe’s climate in 2023, it was the continent’s fourth wettest year on record, with December being the wettest month on record in places such as the UK.

The report found that extreme weather caused at least €13bn (£11.2bn) in damage and affected 1.6 million people.

“2023 is truly an extraordinary year,” said Dr. Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which produced the report jointly with the World Meteorological Organization.

“Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising at about twice the average rate [and] The three hottest years on record have all occurred since 2020,” Dr Burgess said.

A series of storms throughout the year cause Flooding in central and southern Europe Slovenia suffered what is considered the costliest disaster in its history. Floods affected 1.5 million people.

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Average ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic, the main driver of European weather systems, reached their highest levels on record and were one degree or more above average temperatures for much of 2023.

European glaciers have also suffered historic melt, losing 10% of their remaining ice in 2022 and 2023 combined.

In late July, the largest region on record in Europe suffered “heat stress”, with people “feeling like” temperatures reaching or exceeding 46 degrees, the report said.

Of course, a byproduct of extreme heat is wildfires – including Largest wildfires ever recorded in mainland Greece.

For a continent like Europe, surrounded by seas, climate warming is a travesty, bringing extreme heat waves and extreme rainfall.

“We know that in a warmer climate we will have more heatwaves and that they will be more intense,” Dr Burgess said. “We also know that in a warmer climate the atmosphere can hold More moisture means storm events will be more intense.”

Farmers like Andrew Blanton don’t need climate scientists to convince them of this.

The last time I visited his farm was in the summer of 2022, which like 2023 was the hottest year in Europe, when his potatoes were roasting in temperatures of nearly 40 degrees.

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He told me that under such extreme circumstances, farmers could continue to produce food. The vagaries of the weather mean that all areas of the country are affected to varying degrees each year.

But from the economics of food production, low prices prevent farmers from producing surpluses, meaning climate shocks could cause economic losses while also affecting prices for consumers.

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“Historically, [food] The value is so small that you lose money by producing a surplus. Realistically, in order to deal with a natural disaster, you need some emergency response,” Mr Blanton said.

For now, his fields are dry enough that he is digging out compacted soil for this year’s crop and hopes for milder weather in 2024.