Good question! The most important reason that Europe does not have tropical climates is that is outside of the tropical zone. The tropical zone is a band around the earth that extends about 25degrees north and south of the equator (25degrees of latitude equals about 1750 miles). Europe is too far north to be in the tropical zone.

The reason that many places in the tropical zone have tropical climates is that the water at the surface of the oceans is very warm in these areas because they get a lot of direct sunlight. Warm waters lead to a lot of evaporation and precipitation, resulting in relatively wet climates at tropical latitudes.

This leads to an interesting question… The Mediterranean Sea is quite warm because its waters are partially isolated from the much larger volume Atlantic (it’s sort of like a bath tub). Why doesn’t this body of warm water cause the same effect? I suspect that it has something to do with the size. The volume of the Mediterranean is much less than that of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans that cause most tropical climates.