The French public health agency said most of the heat-related fatalities involved older people, warning that the number was expected to rise as more information became available about deaths in residential care and private homes.<\/p>\n
It said areas under red alert for heat had been particularly badly affected, and 85% of the deaths had been those aged 65 and over.<\/p>\n
The sharpest increases, the agency said, involved people dying at home, especially in the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris and its suburbs.<\/p>\n
Temperatures \u2060are forecast to reach 40C in parts of Europe as storms moved into other areas.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00249970-614.jpg\"\/)
\nA woman walks in Grenoble sheltering under a parasol to protect herself from the heat<\/p>\n
Scientists have said the heatwave, which began on 20 June, was the worst recorded in Europe, and the blistering conditions have disrupted power generation, damaged infrastructure and overwhelmed healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
The heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, which has made this week’s soaring night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been just \u200ctwo decades ago, according to scientists.<\/p>\n
Sweltering heat<\/p>\n
Temperatures \u2060were forecast to near or top 40C in Germany, Poland and Italy, while storms broke out in parts of France, causing further disruption to travel and power supplies.<\/p>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00249989-614.jpg\"\/)
\nPeople cool off under a sprinkler during a heatwave at the Old Town in Warsaw<\/p>\n
In Germany, train services were reduced on a major rail line in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and trams were suspended in the eastern city of Leipzig.<\/p>\n
It comes as the country set a new temperature record today at 41.7C, according to preliminary data from the German weather service (DWD).<\/p>\n
A station in Coschen, near the Polish border in eastern Brandenburg, recorded the record high – breaking the previous record of 41.5C set just a day earlier in Drewitz, with a red alert issued by authorities yesterday amid the high heat.<\/p>\n
Many people hunkered down at home, reluctant to go outside until the sun went down, local media \u200creported.<\/p>\n
Poland surpassed its all-time heat record with temperatures reaching 40.5C, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) said.<\/p>\n
“According to telemetry data and operational data at this moment,” the new high was registered in the western town of Slubice, she said.<\/p>\n
The extreme heat has also affected Europe’s rivers, depleting and warming their waters, and causing problems for electricity generation and agriculture.<\/p>\n
Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant will likely need to reduce output again today due to the high temperature of the Danube River that it uses as a coolant, the government said.<\/p>\n
In Italy, \u200cthe flow of the Po has dwindled, allowing seawater to advance as far as 18km \u2060inland and raising \u200cfears for agriculture and protected wetlands in the river delta.<\/p>\n
Dozens of people seeking relief from the heat are reported to have drowned.<\/p>\n
Extreme heat to ease in France<\/p>\n
France’s weather agency said the extreme heat had diminished in most parts of the country, but some areas in the northeast were \u2060still under a heatwave advisory.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Stephanie Rist told La Tribune newspaper that the impact of the heatwave could linger for as long as 10 days after the weather had ebbed.<\/p>\n
“The episode is not finished,” she told broadcaster BFM.<\/p>\n
The storms that battered portions of France late yesterday brought in some cooler air, but they led to power outages for thousands of households.<\/p>\n
As of early this morning, 63,000 households in northern and central France were without power, electricity provider Enedis said in an update.<\/p>\n
![\"Lightnings](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00249987-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLightnings flashes in the clouds as a severe storm looms over a canal in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw<\/p>\n
Amid the record temperatures, street parties and music festivals were cancelled in France, Germany and the Netherlands – though a Pride March went ahead in Budapest despite the extreme heat warnings.<\/p>\n
“It can’t be ruled out that temperatures could approach 42C,” the German weather service said, which would mean another all-time heat record just a day after the previous one.<\/p>\n
The temperature in Kubschuetz in the east did not fall below 29.4C during the night, the service said, making it the warmest night since records began almost 150 years ago.<\/p>\n
Denmark’s weather service said yesterday that the country had recorded its highest temperature ever, and then an hour later said the record had lasted just an hour, with the mercury hitting 37C in two places near Aarhus.<\/p>\n
The Czech Republic also recorded its highest-ever temperature, with a reading of 40.8C just north of Prague, but the country’s weather service said the heat would peak today with temperatures expected to get close or even exceed 41C.<\/p>\n
Switzerland broke the record for its hottest-ever June day for the third day in a row yesterday, with the mercury rising to 39C in the northern city of Basel.<\/p>\n
Thunderstorms<\/p>\n
The cooler weather was accompanied by thunderstorms, and over 800 flights out of London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports were delayed and scores more cancelled on Saturday, according to tracker FlightAware.<\/p>\n
Parks in Paris were closed late yesterday and a rock festival was canceled in Bordeaux last night. Paris police also banned a street protest and a festival planned for today.<\/p>\n
Police in Brussels also evacuated a music festival.<\/p>\n
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels – and are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.<\/p>\n
Experts said a “heat dome” of trapped air from north Africa was causing the intense weather, and although the phenomenon was not unprecedented, the temperatures were.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n
What is the ‘Omega Block’ causing Europe’s intense heatwave?<\/a> Romania was the latest country to issue a red alert, putting out a warning that almost the entire country would face extreme heat from Monday to Wednesday.<\/p>\n Slovakia had issued a similar warning.<\/p>\n No need for jackets<\/p>\n The Czech Republic, Hungary and Moldova were also on the highest alert for the weekend, with Balkan countries also bracing for a tough few days.<\/p>\n Slovak officials said that between Friday and Saturday six people had drowned in lakes and swimming pools just in the Bratislava region alone.<\/p>\n In France, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told a French newspaper that 74 people have drowned in the country since 18 June, mostly after jumping into “unauthorised, unsupervised bodies of water such as rivers, lakes and ponds”.<\/p>\n Although a slew of events were cancelled, such as the Hamburg half-marathon, many in Germany were soldiering on.<\/p>\n The Berlin Philharmonic said it would continue with its traditional end-of-season outdoor concert in Berlin, but men would not need to wear jackets and ladies’ tops did not necessarily have to be long-sleeved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Health Organization has said that over 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded in Europe since 21…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-528492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Smart tech helps keep Rome’s elderly safe during heatwave<\/a>
Analysis: Heatwave exposes Europe’s cascading climate risks<\/a><\/p>\n