temperature of 16.4 degrees celsius, 4.5 degrees higher than the previous record. it was a similar story in poland, where it hit 18.9 degrees, four degrees higher than the previous record forjanuary. and in the spanish city of bilbao, the temperature reached more than 25 degrees, 10 degrees higher than they ve ever seen at this time of year. contrast that with what america has been experiencing in recent days, freezing cold temperatures and a blanket of snow, with more severe weather on the way. if, as many suggest, this is down to climate change, then it seems that that can take many different forms. tim allman, bbc news. joining us now is our climate correspondentjonah fisher. hello to you. those are really extraordinary pictures at the beginning of that report, the md ski
lifts, no snow on the slopes in salzburg. climate scientists look for patterns. is that what we are seeing, a pattern of milder winters, or is it possible to say that yet? what climate scientists like to look at is not specifically events by themselves, because there are many contributing factors that can lead to weather events like the remarkable one we just saw across continental europe. that event is superficially due to a huge mass of warm air moving from the coast of west africa, across europe. it has warmed up, basically, europe, from the west to the east, as far as ukraine. 0f the west to the east, as far as ukraine. of course, the big question is, how is this linked to climate change? scientists will be looking at that question. the way they look at that question. the way they look at this, the climate scientists, is that they try to calculate probabilities. they look at how likely this sort of extreme weather event would be if there hadn t been any human interference, and then