Record-breaking heatwave in Europe – New records in England, France and Spain

New records
Record-breaking heatwave in Europe

Europe is currently experiencing an extraordinary heatwave. Temperature records are being broken from the Iberian Peninsula through France to the UK.

Split image showing a person cooling off in fountains beneath the Eiffel Tower on the left and a western Europe temperature map on the right highlighting extreme heat, with 40.9°C at Paris-Longchamp and 36.4°C at Yeovilton.

Scorching heat in Western Europe: new records were set in Paris and southern England.

These record figures have already been recorded:

France: 44.3 °C in

Pissos

(south of Bordeaux) – Paris records 40.9 °C in June for the first time

UK: 36.4 °C in

Yeovilton

, Somerset – a new national record for June

UK: 36.6 °C in

Cardiff

- a new record minimum temperature for June

The record-breaking heatwave will continue to move eastwards towards Central Europe over the weekend. Temperatures will rise to over 35 °C in many parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany. In Germany, temperatures could even exceed 40 °C.

On Sunday, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary could also come close to the 40 °C mark.

The current heatwave shows once again the direction in which things are heading: climate change is making periods of extreme heat more frequent and more intense. And summer has only just begun.

Local impacts

The London Ambulance Service reported the most category 1 call outs in the service's history on Wednesday.

Technical issues in hospitals as machines and cooling systems fail in the heat.

Around 2,400 schools closed entirely or closed early across England and Wales.

Hosepipe ban introduced for South East Water customers in Kent.

Heat is released during thunderstormsEurope WeatherRadar

Tommy Kühnlein

New recordsRecord-breaking heatwave in Europe

Local impacts

New records
Record-breaking heatwave in Europe