This week’s heatwave is the hottest ever recorded in Europe, as well as the most humid, and it is likely to cause thousands of deaths.

Although a potential “super El Niño” is forming in the Pacific Ocean, this didn’t play a role in the heatwave, a study by the World Weather Attribution network of scientists has found. Instead, global warming is clearly to blame.

The study analysed how likely the average daily maximum temperature projected for 26 to 28 June in western and central Europe would have been in the cooler climates of 1976 and of 2003.

While the weather pattern – a low-pressure heat dome that is trapping hot air from the south – isn’t unusual, the temperatures are. Fifty years ago, a typical June heatwave would have been about 3.5°C cooler, and the temperatures seen over the next three days would have been a less-than-one-in-10,000-year occurrence.

Daytime temperatures have 44°C�� (111°��) in one French town, and nighttime temperatures have remained above 30°C (86°��) in parts of Spain.

“This event would not have been possible in June without climate change,” at Imperial College London said at a media briefing on 25 June. “The three-day nighttime temperatures would not have been possible at any time of year without climate change.”

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The humidity has also been unprecedented, reaching more than 50 per cent in many British cities. Dew-point temperatures have been in the low 20s, as compared to the single digits during the July 2022 heatwave that set the UK’s temperature record.

The wet-bulb globe temperature, which measures not just air temperature but also humidity, heat radiation and air movement, has broken or is expected to break records in almost half of European cities, the study found.

Humidity amplifies health risks because it slows evaporation, making sweating less effective. While older people or those who have a chronic illness are in particular danger, so are migrants and people experiencing homelessness.

“What we see very clearly… is how unequal the effects of this heatwave are and how that really demonstrates the inequality that widens due to climate change,” said , also at Imperial College London. “Because it’s of course people who are particularly vulnerable who are most likely to lose their lives.”

While it is too soon to look at excess mortality, a previous study found a smaller heatwave in June and July 2025 killed 2300 people in London and 11 other European cities.

“The health impacts of this heatwave are likely to be extremely high across large parts of northern and central Europe,” said Keeping.

Heatwaves will become even more intense and frequent unless we rapidly cut fossil fuel emissions, the researchers stressed. And Europe, the fastest warming continent, is not ready, as it has an ageing, urban population living in cities built for a cooler era. In the UK, only 5 per cent of homes have air conditioning.

Besides AC, Europe should invest in passive cooling like building insulation, ventilation, green roofs and walls and trees along streets, they said. It should also expand its heat response to include oft-forgotten groups like people with mental health conditions and those who are pregnant, said Carolina Pereira Marghidan at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.

“Europe has heat action plans, but research has also shown that sometimes they do not cover all the groups that may be vulnerable,” she said.

Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022 and its second warmest year ever, according to the . The annual report, released today, also reveals that temperatures across Europe are rising at twice the global average, with the continent having experienced 2.2°C of warming since pre-industrial times.

The figures, which come from multiple data sets including satellite, in situ measurements and numerical weather prediction models, fit into the wider global heating trend, with global data showing that the past eight years have been the warmest on record.

The probability of getting a warmer year, both globally and in Europe, is increasing every year due to rising levels of greenhouse gases, says at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which compiled the data for the report.

“If you imagine a deck of cards where the black cards are cooler years and the red ones warmer years, then the global heating effect is like removing black cards from the deck every year and replacing them with red ones,” says Burgess.

No corner of Europe escaped unscathed from the extreme conditions of 2022. In western Europe, peak summer temperatures were as much as 10°C greater than typical and, for the first time on record, temperatures in the UK reached 40°C (104°��).

Across southern Europe, heatwave conditions resulted in a record number of days with very strong heat stress – temperatures that feel between 38°C and 46°C (100°F and 115°��).

The high temperatures and long sunshine hours resulted in surface ozone concentrations reaching potentially harmful levels across much of Europe. Average sea surface temperatures across Europe’s seas were the warmest on record in 2022 and about three-quarters of its lakes were warmer than average, says the report.

The unprecedented high temperatures and low rainfall – 10 per cent less than average – led to widespread drought, resulting in the second lowest river flow and the second largest wildfire burn area on record for Europe.

Effects on colder areas were also significant. A lack of snow along with the unusually warm summer caused record melting of Alpine glaciers, which lost more than 5 cubic kilometres of ice – equivalent to dropping in height by 3.5 metres.

It was a similar story in the Arctic, according to the report, with data showing that 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record there and the Svalbard region experienced its warmest summer on record, with some areas seeing temperatures 2.5°C above average. Meanwhile, exceptional September heatwaves across Greenland resulted in record-breaking ice sheet melt.

For both the Arctic and Europe, atmospheric circulation patterns played a key role in producing the extremes of 2022, with stable high-pressure conditions over western Europe generating warm, dry and sunny conditions. By autumn, a series of “rivers” in the atmosphere brought warmth and moisture to Greenland in September.

“The findings are all consistent with warming of climate due to the heating effect from our emissions of greenhouse gases,” says at the University of Reading, UK. “Land warms faster than ocean, but this can only explain some of the excessive warming seen in recent years over Europe, compared to other continents.”

Other drivers include Arctic warming and the loss of ice and snow in European mountain regions, which reduces the amount of solar energy reflected back to space, says , director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

An El Niño climate pattern is anticipated to arrive later this year, which is likely to bring extreme global temperatures, but its link with European climate is relatively weak and it won’t necessarily drive up European temperatures.

Temperatures in the UK have passed 40°C for the first time, with a provisional record of 40.3°C set at Coningsby in Lincolnshire this afternoon.

It comes after a of 25.8°C in Kenley in the London Borough of Croydon, smashing the previous record of 23.9°C in Brighton in 1990.

A heatwave has blanketed large parts of the country, closing schools, heaping pressure on hospitals and disrupting transport. Scientists say that a UK temperature of , and that every heatwave now has been made more likely and more intense by global warming.

“That temperatures are as high as they are is because of human-induced climate change. And we are very certain about this now,” says at Imperial College London.

Europe is sweltering in extreme heat, triggering forest fires across France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. A , with “danger” warnings extending as far north as Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. Thousands of people have been evacuated across Europe, and .

The deadly heat affecting the continent comes as government ministers from more than 40 countries meet in Berlin for annual climate change talks known as the , discussing help for low-income countries and how to cut carbon emissions faster. UN secretary general António Guterres said countries were failing on multilateral climate action. “We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide,” he said in a statement today.

In the UK, in the Scottish Borders, which would be a new record for Scotland. On 18 July, .

Public health authorities encouraged people to stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day and advised against non-essential travel. that their children’s schools were closed or closing early on Monday and Tuesday, despite the UK government saying there is no public health reason for school closures.

“Severe heatwaves are a problem that’s not going away, and they will get worse,” says at the University of Reading, UK. “So we can no longer tolerate poor design of our buildings and our cities. And we urgently need to think about things like reducing overheating, shading trees, building for cooling and providing these public cooling spaces.”

Sleep is interrupted for many people during heatwaves, says at the University of Oxford. He adds there is evidence that shorter and poorer sleep can trigger existing mental health conditions.

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Millions of Europeans have sweltered in an extreme and unusually early heatwave that has heaped pressure on energy systems, farmers and forests.

Temperature records have fallen around the continent, but particularly in western and central regions of Europe. France reached 40°C on 16 June – the earliest point in the year that this temperature has been reached since records began – and its southern seaside city of French authorities have banned some outdoor events due to the intense heat. The episode has echoes of June 2019 when a similar heatwave was found to have been made at least five times more likely because of climate change.

There were also ��in Switzerland, and .

Parts of Spain exceeded 40°C over the weekend, with firefighters having to tackle wildfires across several regions. More than 2600 hectares of vegetation in Catalonia were affected by the blazes, .

Germany has also been afflicted by wildfires and . In Italy, that food output was at risk from drought in the north of the country. Parts of the UK were warm enough to see heatwaves officially declared after temperatures .

“This is quite early for these types of heatwaves, and it has taken a lot of people by surprise,” says at the University of Reading, UK. “It’s very clear that we’re still not ready for this type of heat. We should be much better prepared, because we’re expecting this type of thing to get worse [due to climate change].”

Cloke says short-term measures include people adopting strategies to make their homes cooler, because most housing stock in Europe isn’t suitable for such high temperatures. She lists shades for windows, insulation, dedicating a “safe cool room” by shutting doors to keep the heat out, and using water to cool yourself down.

She also backs awareness-raising ideas, such as naming heatwaves like the UK does for storms. Seville in Spain has . “We know that it makes people sit up and take notice, because it conveys this sense of danger, it kind of personifies it and makes it real,” says Cloke.

Longer term, Cloke says major changes will be needed to infrastructure to stop roads melting and railways buckling, and shifts will be needed to ensure new houses are built to cope with heat. Moreover, she says much more serious action is needed to curtail the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. “We need to stop burning fossil fuels,” she says.

Europe’s heatwave is testing energy systems, with France’s EDF Energy that nuclear power output – reliant on water for cooling – will fall as river levels drop. Gas power stations were fired up in Spain to meet a spike in demand for air conditioning amid a period of low power generation from renewables.

The heat in many countries began rising just as climate change negotiations .