At a station in Coschen, in eastern Brandenburg near the Polish border, the thermometer read 41.7C at about four in the afternoon on Sunday, 28 June. It was Germany’s hottest day on record, and the third in a row to set a new mark. Across the border in Poland, Slubice logged 40.5C, an all-time high. At Doksany, north of Prague, the Czech Republic recorded 41.1C, its second record in two days.
The heat has a human cost that governments are only beginning to count. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that more than 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded in Europe since 21 June, “linked to high temperatures”. Heat stress, he said, is often called the “silent killer”, and European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for such weather.
France takes the brunt
Around 1,000 of those deaths were in France, where the health ministry reported the figure for the period since Wednesday alone. Many of the dead were aged 65 or over, and the agency logged a 40% rise in people dying at home. French health officials warned that the toll would probably climb as data arrives from care homes and private homes. On Tuesday the country had its hottest day ever nationally, with 44.3C in Pissos, in the south-west. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said at least 74 people had drowned since the heatwave began, mostly in rivers, lakes and ponds without supervision.
Authorities have acted. Paris banned drinking takeaway alcohol in public from noon on Friday until Sunday morning, around France’s World Cup match with Norway, and cancelled the city’s pride march to ease the load on emergency services. In the Netherlands, the Defqon.1 festival was called off after a code red warning.
Britain and beyond
The Mirror reported that more than 191 million people in Europe faced temperatures of at least 35C over the week. In the UK, June records fell three days running, peaking at 37.7C in Lingwood, Norfolk, on Friday and beating the old record of 35.6C. Three English hospitals declared critical incidents under a rare red warning, and University Hospital Southampton cancelled some planned operations and outpatient appointments.
Tedros called on European countries to “implement heat health action plans”. He said Europe is warming at twice the global average, and that a heatwave once seen as once in a generation is now arriving almost every year. The BBC reported that the extreme weather has been blamed on a “heat dome”, in which sinking air compresses, warms and dries out so that no clouds form.
Sources
- Europe's heatwave 'linked to 1,300 deaths' as more records broken
- Over 1,300 deaths linked to record-breaking European heatwave, WHO says
