Records fall across the continent
Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland all recorded their hottest June days ever as a mass of hot air pushed east across Europe. Britain's Met Office reported 36.9°C in Suffolk on Friday, breaking the June record for the third consecutive day. France recorded over 1,000 additional deaths during the heatwave, straining hospital capacity.
Climate fingerprint clear
Scientists from World Weather Attribution said the heatwave was made at least 10 times more likely by human-caused climate change and would have been 'virtually impossible' without it. The analysis found that temperatures reached levels that would be expected only once every several hundred years in a world without global warming.
Cities scramble to adapt
Paris police ordered the cancellation of the city's Pride March due to the heat, rescheduling it to September. The Paris Diamond League athletics event shortened its schedule. Across Europe, the crisis has renewed calls for heat preparedness plans, improved building insulation, and public cooling centers — infrastructure that many European cities built for cold winters, not blistering summers.