Europe heatwave claims over 1,300 lives as France records 1,000 excess deaths and temperature records tumble

Death toll mounts

France has registered 1,000 more deaths than normal since June 24, Santé Publique France reported Sunday 28 June. The agency described the count as provisional and based only on electronic death certificates, warning the real toll will be higher once data from care homes and private residences is included. Across Europe, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 1,300 additional deaths had been recorded since 21 June.

The episode is not finished.

French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist told BFM TV that the health impact could linger for 10 days after temperatures subside. Still, she said mortality would not reach the level of the August 2003 heatwave, when 15,000 people died, because 40 percent of healthcare facilities have been adapted since then.

Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are closed and power grids are collapsing.

Tedros called heat a “silent killer” in buildings not designed for such temperatures and noted Europe is the fastest-warming continent, at twice the global average.

Records broken from Berlin to Prague

Temperature records shattered for the second day in a row. Germany recorded a provisional high of 41.7 °C on Sunday, the DWD weather service said, after hitting 41.5 °C on Saturday. The Czech Republic reached 41.1 °C in Doksany, north of Prague, breaking the previous day’s 40.6 °C. The UK recorded 36 °C, Denmark 37 °C and Hungary nearly 40 °C. Berlin itself hit 41.5 °C earlier.

Météo France lifted most red alerts on Sunday, leaving only two departments in the northeast under maximum warning. But the mass of Saharan air that baked western Europe is now moving east, and meteorological agencies in multiple countries forecast unusually high temperatures will persist through next week, including in Portugal.

Hospitals under strain

In France, Interior Minister Laurent Núñez said heat-related emergency calls had jumped 40 percent over the previous four days. The head of Paris’s Pompidou Hospital emergency department, Philippe Juvin, told reporters the eventual toll would be “very, very serious.”

The toll is likely to be very, very serious.

Santé Publique France noted that 85 percent of the excess deaths involved people aged 65 and over, though all age groups were affected. Deaths at home rose by 40 percent, with the increase most pronounced in regions that had been under red alert: Île-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bretagne, Centre-Val de Loire, Normandie and Pays de la Loire.

A long summer ahead

Europe’s death figures remain incomplete. Santé Publique France said mortality data from last Friday, when half the country was still on maximum alert, has not yet been compiled. Patrice Belloux, president of France’s association of emergency doctors, cautioned that summer has barely begun and mortality could worsen.

The summer has only just started and the mortality figures could worsen in the coming weeks.

The WHO urged European countries to implement heat action plans within broader climate-health programmes. The organisation highlighted that heatwaves once considered once-per-generation events are now occurring almost annually.