Key events
Heatwave creates perfect conditions for surge in mosquitoes, expert warns
As if the heat was not enough, it now looks like current UK weather conditions are perfect for a surge in mosquitoes, leading to bites, an expert has warned.
Those capable of carrying nasty illnesses, such as dengue fever and Zika, could also take hold in the UK in the coming years due to climate change, according to Dr Mojca Kristan, assistant professor in medical entomology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) told PA news agency.
She said:
“Weather conditions in the UK at the moment are perfect for mosquitoes. They like warmth as well as standing water to lay their eggs in.
May was too dry, but we’ve had rain in June so there’s water around and, as the weather continues to warm up, I would expect mosquitoes to emerge and start biting to get the blood they need to breed.”
She suggested people could take precautions to ensure they are not bitten.
“To protect yourself from bites, wear insect repellent and cover your skin with long sleeves, plus wear socks in the evening as mosquitoes like biting around ankles,” she said.
ShareGovernment urged to refurbish schools to respond to risks of extreme heat events
Richard Adams
Education editor
Meanwhile, England’s government has been warned it will take until the year 2246 for the country’s 22,000 state schools and colleges to be refurbished to cope with the climate crisis at current rates of progress.
In a letter to the Department for Education, the general secretary of the National Education Union, Daniel Kebede, said this week’s widespread schools closures in the south of England shows the need for urgent action.
Kebede said:
“Air conditioning now needs to be rolled out to schools to deal with the health risks associated with extreme heat events. We would urge you to set out a timetable for ensuring that schools have this protection, prioritising schools with the greatest need.
There has been a welcome increase in expenditure on the school estate through the 2025 spending review. However at the current rate of progress it will take 220 years to refurbish all schools, which is why further investment … is needed to futureproof the school estate.”
Last year the government announced almost £20bn investment in school rebuilding through to 2035, to overhaul more than 750 schools and sixth-form colleges. It has also opened a new “renewal and retrofit” programme of £710m for schools and colleges to increase resilience to climate change by 2030.
ShareMet Office extended red extreme heat warning into Friday with up to 38C in east, south-east England
The Met Office’s red extreme heat warning has been extended into Friday night.
“The exceptional spell of hot and humid weather will continue across this region, with impacts to the general population highly likely,” it said.
Weather alert map for Friday Photograph: Met Office
It explained:
“The heatwave which is affecting a large part of England and Wales is set to continue during Friday. The focus of the highest temperatures on Friday is likely to shift towards east and southeastern England, where maximum temperatures in the shade could exceed 36 Celsius, perhaps rising to 38 Celsius in some places. However, following another very warm night, the greatest likelihood of high impacts are expect to be within this Red warning area during Friday.
The heat will be accompanied by high humidity, exacerbating the potential for discomfort and health impacts, with very warm and humid night times also reducing the ability for people to recover overnight.
Significant disruption to daily life is likely and the public should take every effort to make precautions and adapt their daily routines where possible to cope with these levels of heat, which up to now have been extremely rare for the UK.”
The agency also confirmed that the UK record for the highest June minimum temperature has been provisionally broken with 23.5C reported overnight in Bute Park, Cardiff.
Updated at 06.20 EDT
It’s not just hot days, but warm nights that pose higher health risk, experts say
Ajit Niranjan
European environment correspondent
Hot days can be brutal. But it’s the warm nights some doctors fear most.
Parts of the UK and western Europe have seen consecutive “tropical nights” this week, where overnight temperatures have not fallen below 20C. France broke its record for the hottest night yesterday, which had been set just two nights before.
A person uses a hand fan during a heatwave in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Emile Windal/Belga/AFP/Getty Images
The body is supposed to recover at night, lowering core temperatures and slowing the heart and lungs. That recovery does not happen when nights are too warm, which means the body remains under strain around the clock, said Armel Castellan, an extreme heat expert at the joint climate and health office of the World Meterological Organisation and the World Health Organization.
“This is why, when assessing the health impact of a heatwave, minimum temperatures can be more telling than the peak afternoon high,” said Castellan.
“A day that reaches 38C but drops to 18C overnight is very different from a day that reaches 36C and stays above 25C through the night. The second scenario carries a much higher health risk.”
As we approach midday in Europe, let’s take a quick look at the latest readings across the continent.
Paris 37C
Frankfurt 34C
Rome 33C
Cologne 32C
Bologna 32C
Munich 32C
Berlin 32C
Brussels 31C
Milan 31C
Prague 30C
In comparison, London looks almost comfy at 28C.
We are still expecting large parts of France to be in high 30s approaching 40, and Germany in mid 30s later today.
ShareUK water operator imposes temporary hosepipe ban amid growing strain from heatwave
Farryn Stock
Over in the UK, South East Water has announced a temporary hosepipe ban in Kent amid growing strain from the ongoing heatwave (31C today, 33C tomorrow).
Customers in Kent have been asked to stop using hosepipes and sprinklers with immediate effect. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
The water company, who have recently been under public scrutiny over multiple water outages, has asked all customers across Kent to restrict their use of hosepipes and sprinklers with immediate effect.
The restriction comes after a red alert was placed on Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire earlier this week, urging customers to use their water as sparingly as possible as demand increases during record temperatures.
David Hinton, SEW’s outgoing CEO, who stepped down following supply outages, said:
“To safeguard that shared supply and prevent any homes from facing a sudden loss of water, we sadly need to ask our communities to not use their hosepipes immediately. We are deeply sorry for the disruption this causes, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone helping us protect Kent’s water.”
While the temporary ban will not officially come into effect till 00.01 on Friday, the company is asking customers in Kent to respect these restrictions immediately.
ShareFrance breaks hottest ever night record set earlier this week
Meanwhile, France experienced its hottest night from Wednesday to Thursday since measurements began in 1947, the national weather agency said, breaking a record set, erm, earlier in the week.
The windows of a Haussmann-style residential building are seen covered with emergency blankets to shield them from the sun in Paris, France. Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
The national temperature indicator – an average of daytime and night-time temperatures across 30 stations – reached 22C, Météo-France said, citing provisional data, coming days after a record 21.6C was measured Monday to Tuesday.
ShareGermany’s DB gives passengers option to cancel planned rail trips this weekend due to extreme weather
Over in Germany, the country’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn, or DB, offered passengers booked for this weekend an option to cancel their ticket free of charge.
The option is available to all passengers who booked their tickets before 23 June, and were due to travel between today and 30 June.
DB said it was offering this option as a “goodwill gesture” due to “the increasing heat.”
Passengers board an fast train of German rail operator Deutsche Bahn in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
Earlier this week, Germany’s rail network ground to a halt late on Tuesday as a result of maintenance work that went wrong, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers unable to get home as the national operator faced widespread criticism over the chaos.
Share‘This is what climate crisis looks like in practice, and it’s just getting started’
Harriet Richards
Assistant environment editor
Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, warned that “Europe’s savage heatwave has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it” and is “the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet.”
“Schools closing, the vulnerable dying, economies sweating: this is what the climate crisis looks like in practice, and it’s just getting started.”
A child stands at an entrance queue area near the Eiffel Tower, which was temporarily closed due to extreme heat. Photograph: Annice Lyn/Getty Images
He continued:
“Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, extreme heat will keep getting worse, and other climate impacts – from mega-droughts, floods, wildfires and storms – will keep hammering every economy and population harder each year.
With billions of households, businesses and all economies still feeling the heat of the latest fossil fuel cost chaos, and thousands dying in a single day in some regions as temperatures soar, stronger climate actions can’t wait.
The solutions are equally clear: a faster shift to renewables – which are now much cheaper than fossil fuels – as well as protecting forests and boosting climate resilience. Many countries need support to embrace clean energy and protect their peoples. There’s no time to lose.”
ShareHeatwave linked to 212 deaths in Spain, estimates show
A heatwave that has gripped much of Europe and seen temperature records tumble is linkable with 212 deaths in Spain between Sunday and Wednesday, estimated from a public institute showed, AFP reported.
The MoMo monitoring system compiles daily death statistics in Spain and calculates the difference in mortality by comparing them with the levels foreseeable based on historical records.
A woman uses an umbrella to cover from the sun at El Retiro park in Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty ImagesShareUK records its hottest June day and France its hottest day ever as heatwave sweeps Europe
Ajit Niranjan and Ashifa Kassam
Heatwaves kill tens of thousands of people across Europe each year and the most scorching extremes have grown hotter, longer and more common as the planet has warmed. Climate breakdown is thought to have increased temperatures by 2C to 4C, according to a rapid analysis published by ClimaMeter on Monday.
Windows covered by sheets in an attempt to reflect the heat as France experiences a heatwave, in Nantes, western France. Photograph: Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP/Getty Images
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said Europe’s heatwave was “putting lives at risk” on Wednesday. He urged world leaders to invest more in resilient health systems and act faster on the climate emergency.
Europe is fastest-warming continent ahead of Asia and North America
“The data [is] clear: temperatures across Europe are rising at roughly twice the global average rate, increasing the likelihood and severity of extreme heat in the future,” he said. “We cannot afford further delay.”
Share101 million Europeans to experience temperatures above 35C today
As the heatwave is set to hit large parts of Germany today, at least 101 million people in Europe are expected to experience temperatures in excess of 35C on Thursday, according to AFP estimates.
That’s a higher number than yesterday’s 94 millions.
General view of tennis spectators in Eastbourne during the heatwave as they take cover under hats. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
Maximum temperatures are expected to surpass 30C for more than 380 million people across Europe excluding Turkey, representing nearly two-thirds of the population, AFP added, according to an analysis based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 population projections from the Joint Research Centre.
ShareUK universities cancel student open days due to extreme heatRichard Adams
Education editor
The heatwave continues to disrupt the British education system with University College London, one of the UK’s largest universities, cancelling its student open days planned for Friday and Saturday, relieving thousands of prospective undergraduates and parents from travelling to central London.
A person uses a portable fan on an underground train in central London. Photograph: Toby Shepheard/AFP/Getty Images
UCL said in a statement:
“Please do not travel to campus for these events. We have taken this action with the safety and wellbeing of our visitors, students and staff as our primary consideration, and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
Imperial College London also cancelled its open day today, and has asked students to join an “online open day” instead. King’s College London has confirmed that its open day on Saturday is going ahead.
Open days are a crucial part of UK university recruitment drives, allowing potential students to inspect campus facilities and accommodation as well as meeting faculty and learn about courses on offer.
ShareParis mayor reports ‘increase in mortality’ due to heatwave
Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said there had been an “increase in mortality” in the capital owing to the heatwave, without giving any figures, AFP reported.
He said “pretty much all our indicators are in a critical state”, including calls to emergency medical services, calls to the fire brigade, ER admissions, and deaths, he told local TV.
Heatwave hits in Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France. Photograph: Apaydin Alain/ABACA/ShutterstockShareMorning opening: The heatwave continues
Jakub Krupa
Ready for another day of temperatures way above 30C?
People browse fans and air conditioning units in a homeware store, amid a heatwave in Paris, France. Photograph: Tom Nicholson/Reuters
The European heatwave of 2026 begins to slowly move eastwards, but things are still going to affect millions of Europeans.
The red extreme heat warning continues in the UK; 72 out of 96 mainland French departments are covered by its French equivalent, as are 17 Italian cities – and these numbers are actually even higher than yesterday.
It’s 33C in Nantes, 31C in Paris and it’s not even 10am local time.
We will see the highs of 39C in Paris, 36C in Germany’s Cologne and Italy’s Bologna, 35C in Belgium’s Brussels, 33C in Berlin, and 31C in London.
And Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw look on, wondering about what is going to happen as the temperatures there are expected to hit, erm, 40C over the weekend and on Monday.
I will bring you all the latest updates on how the continent is (desperately trying) to cope in these temperatures.
You can also tell us how you are doing and what are your strategies for this heat:
It’s Thursday, 25 June 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Updated at 03.52 EDT