More than 1,300 excess deaths have been linked to Europe’s record-breaking heatwave since it began on June 21, the World Health Organization said, as a dome of extreme heat that shattered all-time temperature records across the continent began to ease in the west and push eastward.
France has borne the heaviest toll, with the WHO attributing roughly 1,000 of the deaths there, while Spain has recorded 327 heat-attributed deaths. Because heat deaths are typically counted as excess mortality—the gap between observed deaths and the seasonal norm—the figures are provisional and widely expected to rise as records are reconciled in the weeks ahead.
The heat broke national records in quick succession. The Czech Republic hit 41.9°C at Doksany, north of Prague, its highest reading ever. Germany reached 41.7°C at Coschen, near the Polish border, breaking a mark set only 24 hours earlier. Poland recorded 40.5°C at Slubice, edging past a record that had stood for more than a century. France logged 44.3°C (111.7°F), its hottest temperature since national measurements began in 1947.
The World Meteorological Organization said the heat would continue to affect much of Western, Central, and Southern Europe over the following two weeks, with the focus expected to shift toward the Balkans as the western half of the continent gets some relief.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at roughly twice the global average rate. That trajectory, scientists say, is turning what would once have been exceptional summer heat into a recurring and lengthening hazard.
The human toll has been compounded by the strain on infrastructure. The heat has buckled transport networks, forced schools to close early, and pushed power demand higher as air conditioning use surges—a dynamic that drove energy bills in Germany and France sharply higher during the peak days of the event.
Heat is the most lethal weather hazard in Europe, but its victims are concentrated among the elderly, the chronically ill, and those without access to cooling, making the deaths easy to overlook as they accumulate quietly rather than in a single catastrophe. Public-health agencies across the continent have issued repeated warnings to check on vulnerable neighbors and avoid exertion during peak hours.
The event echoes the deadly summers of 2003 and 2022, which killed tens of thousands and prompted European governments to draw up heat-action plans. Officials say those plans—early warnings, cooling centers, and outreach to the isolated—have saved lives this time, even as the records they were designed for keep being broken.