Europe Recorded Over 10,000 Extra Deaths During June Heatwave

A powerful heat wave swept across western Europe in late June, and new data shows it caused more than 10,000 extra deaths. The information comes from EuroMOMO, a health network supported by the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Scientists say the extreme heat is the most likely cause of the spike in deaths. The event has raised serious concerns about how climate change is making dangerous heat waves more common.

Most of the people who died — more than 9,000 — were aged 65 and older. Older adults are especially at risk during extreme heat because their bodies have a harder time cooling down. Extreme heat can cause heat stroke and can make heart and lung diseases much worse. That is why health experts say it is so important to check on elderly neighbors and family members during hot weather.

A doctor named Lasse Vestergaard, who works at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, said the number of deaths was surprisingly high. "To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It's really high," he told Reuters. He also said, "It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat." His organization helps collect and track death data from across Europe.

The data was gathered from 27 European countries and covered the week of June 22 to 28, when the heat wave was at its worst. Countries like France, Spain, and the United Kingdom saw record-breaking temperatures that week. Scientists also checked whether other causes, like COVID-19, could explain the spike, but found no major outbreaks at that time. The total number of extra deaths that week reached 10,650.

In the eight weeks before the heat wave, those same European countries actually had about 500 fewer deaths per week than normal. That makes the sudden jump to over 10,000 extra deaths in a single week even more striking. EuroMOMO noted that France and Belgium had the highest levels of extra deaths, calling their numbers "very high excess" mortality. Belgium's numbers were the worst during any heat wave since records began in the year 2000.

A separate study looked at England and Wales on their own and found around 2,700 people died from heat-related causes during heat waves in May and June. Researchers from Imperial College London and other top science groups found that 42% of those deaths were linked to the extra heat caused by global warming. This means that climate change directly made the heat waves deadlier. Scientists have said the late-June heat wave would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change.

The heat wave also caused many other problems across Europe. Schools were shut down, power supplies were interrupted, and temperature records were broken in several countries. Experts say that as the planet continues to warm, these kinds of deadly heat waves will happen more often and become more intense. Many health and government officials are now calling for better plans to protect people — especially older adults — when dangerous heat strikes.