Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
02-07-2026
PARIS/ WARSAW: Temperatures in Europe have hit a new high this summer, with hotter early-summer heatwaves resulting in illness, excessive deaths and the collapse of infrastructure.
Temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions of the continent, including in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland, impacting transport services.
Meanwhile, in France, where 1,000 excess deaths, the number above what would normally be expected have been reported as a result of the heatwave, storms hit areas of the country after days of temperatures averaging 29.8C (85.6F) but reaching as high as 44C (111.2F) in one town.
Overall, 1,300 excess deaths have been reported in Europe since June 21, according to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In a post on social media, he wrote that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average, and warned that the continent’s infrastructure has not been built to withstand high temperatures.
“Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ heatwave is now occurring nearly annual,” he said on Sunday.
While it is important to note that some excess deaths may be related to other issues and not directly caused by overheating, experts say heatwaves generally are the cause of more people dying than usual. So, what’s behind the excess heatwave-related deaths, and how should European countries be responding?
Why are people dying due to heatwaves in Europe?
On Sunday, France’s public health agency reported 1,000 excess deaths due to the recent heatwave, which began on June 20. The country’s rate of deaths was about 900 per day before the heatwave began.
The agency added that most of the deaths had been of people aged 65 and above, though the extreme heat had affected the health of the entire population.
In Spain, a 90-year-old woman reportedly died near Bilbao after suffering heatstroke in her nursing home, and a 68-year-old man in Almeria was also said to have died from heatstroke last week.
In Germany, at least seven people died due to heatwave-related incidents.
At least two people died in separate swimming accidents in Berlin on Saturday, German police said. In another incident, a group in a rubber dinghy found an unresponsive man in Jungfernheideteich, a man-made lake in a public park in western Berlin. At least 40 people died by drowning in France.
Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, a lecturer at the Grantham Institute, Climate Change and the Environment, which carries out Imperial College London’s work on climate change, said: “Heatwaves pose serious health dangers, primarily by causing heat stress, which occurs when the body struggles to regulate its temperature. This can lead to dehydration, heat exhaustion, and in severe cases, heatstroke, a medical emergency,” he told media. Heatstroke is a severe heat-related illness which causes the body’s core temperature to rise above 40C (104F), when it cannot cool down properly. “Heatstrokes cause symptoms like high body temperature, confusion, loss of consciousness, rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, and can lead to organ failure or death if not treated urgently,” Konstantinoudis said.
Heat stress can trigger fatal events such as heart attacks, strokes and respiratory failure, particularly among high-risk groups including older adults, people with disabilities, and those without adequate access to cooling or hydration, he added.
Meteorologists say the extreme temperatures in Europe this month were caused by a heat dome, a vast area of high pressure, forming over a large area of Western Europe. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
