Europe Endures Another Day of Record-Breaking Heat
Al Jazeera Staff
More than 101 million people across Europe faced temperatures above 35°C on June 26, with France and Germany hardest hit. The heatwave has been linked to deaths in Spain, where temperatures broke June records, and caused power outages in France's Brittany region.
On June 26, Europe experienced another day of extreme heat, with at least 101 million people expected to face temperatures above 35°C, including 50 million in France and 18 million in Germany, according to an AFP analysis.
The analysis, based on forecasts from the German Weather Service and 2025 population estimates from the Joint Research Centre, showed that maximum temperatures on June 26 were expected to exceed 30°C for more than 380 million people across Europe, nearly two-thirds of the continent's population. This figure was up from June 25, when the German Weather Service recorded 94 million people affected by temperatures above 35°C.
The heat was also set to affect 70 million people in Germany, 48 million in Italy, and 38 million in Britain. Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Croatia were also in the path of the heatwave that began over the weekend.
In France, about 63 million people in the mainland were enduring temperatures above 30°C. The French meteorological agency placed three-quarters of the country under a red heat warning from noon on June 26 through noon on June 27.
In the typically mild Brittany region of northwestern France, heat-related equipment failures left tens of thousands of households without power, forcing them to endure the heat without fans.
In the Paris region, a 3-year-old boy was found dead in a car, marking the third such fatality this week. His parents discovered him in the vehicle parked outside their home in the town of Saint-Gratien.
In Spain, the heatwave may be linked to 212 deaths from June 22 to 25, according to estimates from the Institute of Public Health. The MoMo monitoring system compares daily death data with expected levels based on historical and weather data to identify causes of excess mortality.
The data showed an excess of 98 deaths above the expected level for the same four days in 2025. By comparison, heat-related deaths in Spain from May 16 to September 30 last year reached 3,832, an 87.6% increase over the same period in 2024.
Mainland Spain recorded its highest average daily June temperatures since 1950, with 28.08°C on June 24 and 28.17°C on June 25. Those two days also saw the highest average June minimum temperatures—20.14°C and 19.81°C—creating “tropical nights” that disrupt sleep and threaten health.
The heat triggered top-level warnings in parts of northern Spain, including Cantabria and the Basque Country, which usually escape the worst heat but saw temperatures above 40°C. Most weather warnings were lifted by June 26, leaving only a low-level yellow warning in the north.
