France joins other European countries in recording its hottest summer since measurements began.<\/p>\n
Published On 3 Sep 20263 Sep 2026<\/p>\n
France has recorded its hottest summer ever in 2026, joining Belgium, Britain and Ireland as temperatures soar in Europe, the globe\u2019s fastest-warming continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have just lived through the hottest summer ever recorded since measurements began in 1900,\u201d French Environment Minister Monique Barbut said on Thursday at a presentation of the summer climate report.<\/p>\n
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France has endured multiple severe heatwaves this year, including one in late June that set a new intensity record.<\/p>\n
The country saw an unprecedented 2,025 excess deaths recorded during the heatwave, with a particular increase in deaths among people aged over 45, said French Health Minister Stephanie Rist.<\/p>\n
Another heatwave stretched from late July into August, matching a 23-day record previously set in 1983.<\/p>\n
During this time, France was hit by several major wildfires, even in normally cooler and wetter regions.<\/p>\n
According to the national weather agency Meteo France, the summer was marked by very low rainfall, with a deficit of nearly 40 percent, making it the second driest since records began.<\/p>\n
Meteo France said the summer of 2026 recorded an average temperature of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 3.6C (6.5F) above the normal average.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe summer of 2026 will go down in history,\u201d Barbut said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question we must now ask ourselves is how it will be remembered \u2026 As the first in a long series of summers that continue to break records. Or as a moment when we rose to the challenge of adaptation and mitigation,\u201d by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, she added.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tasked Barbut in late July with presenting new measures to speed up implementation of France\u2019s national climate change adaptation plan.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, she promised conclusions \u201cby the end of September\u201d, including a five-year funding plan.<\/p>\n
Millions in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom\u00a0and elsewhere in Europe experienced extreme temperatures this summer.<\/p>\n
Europe is the world\u2019s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union\u2019s Copernicus Climate Change Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France joins other European countries in recording its hottest summer since measurements began. Published On 3 Sep 20263…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3229,27666,246,1813,1814,61,60,43,82,767],"class_list":["post-613802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate","tag-climate-crisis","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-science","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613802","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=613802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}