Europe’s record heat wave made far more likely by climate change

Europe’s late-June heat wave was the most severe ever recorded for June. World Weather Attribution found conditions like this would have been “virtually impossible” 50 years ago, and the World Meteorological Organization puts Europe’s warming at about 2 C since 1976 and calls it the world’s fastest-warming continent.

The heatwave has shattered numerous temperature records and is already hitting human health, ecosystems, agriculture, infrastructure and labor productivity, with drought and wildfire risk worsening in some places. Its European monitoring center forecast the hottest air would spread across western, central and southern Europe before shifting toward the Balkans, with temperatures running 3 C to 10 C above weekly averages and tropical nights above 20 C in many areas. Health authorities in Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Italy were on high alert as the hot zone moved east and south.

France showed how fast the crisis reaches public systems. Météo-France placed 54 departments, about half the country, under red heat-wave alert on June 23, when the national thermal indicator hit 29.8 C, a new record for the hottest day ever in France. Schools, trains and sporting events were disrupted, visiting hours were restricted at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and a heat-related transformer incident in Finistère left around 68,000 homes without electricity. French utility data also showed nuclear output falling by 4.1 gigawatts as high temperatures reduced access to cooling water.

Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, said Europe lost more than 200,000 people to heat over the past four years and that most of those deaths were preventable. The World Health Organization has urged governments to expand heat-health action plans, cooling centres, hydration checks and flexible shifts. Copernicus recorded western Europe’s warmest June on record in 2025, at 20.49 C, after two major heat waves.