The record-breaking heatwave in Europe between May and June 2026 may have caused over 10,000 excess deaths, data published by EuroMOMO – a mortality monitoring network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization – showed. Of these deaths, more than 9,000 were among people aged 65 and above.
“To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It's really high," Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters. "It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat," he added.
The data was pooled across 27 countries and includes deaths from all causes, not only heat-related ones. Most of it was collected during the week of June 22-28, and the figures could change as more data comes in. Deaths across all age groups — from children to adults aged 85 years and older — were tracked in the report.
EuroMOMO doesn't specifically track heat-related mortalities - it keeps a tab on all deaths in EU. However, the May-June 2026 figures showed an abnormal bump in deaths over the average figure. One of the significant observations its latest graph shows is that in the eight weeks leading up to June, mortality in these same countries had been slightly below average (around 500 fewer deaths per week than expected) but spiked in the subsequent weeks to coincide with the heatwave.
About two weeks earlier, according to an AP report, hospitals across the European Union had been preparing for another heatwave by stocking up on ice-making machines to give patients cold plunges to rapidly lower body temperature. Authorities also encouraged hospitals and citizens to use cooling systems and air conditioning during extreme heat.
The highest numbers of heat-related deaths were reported in France and Belgium. According to another report, 2,700 people died of heat-related causes in England and Wales alone, where temperatures reached between 35.1°C and 37.7°C. Dr. Clair Barnes of Imperial College London, who led the study, said the scale of the numbers should underscore the urgency of the problem. "We can stop making it worse by transitioning towards net zero, because that is not a political target, it's a physics-based target," she said. "If we stop adding greenhouse gases, we stop adding warming and we stop making these heatwaves worse."
The late-June heatwave disrupted daily life across Europe. Power outages and high temperatures forced schools to close in France, Spain and England. Scientists say human-caused climate change is the main driver of the heatwave and is making such events more frequent and intense." These record-breaking heatwaves show once again that the climate crisis isn't a future threat.
The impacts are here with us today, with extreme heat having an impact on our nation's health, economy and public services," Energy and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband told Reuters.Germany reported a record 5,500 heat-related deaths in June, with temperatures reaching 41.7°C. Experts have said the EU should brace for more frequent and more severe heatwaves next summer due to the anticipated El Niño effect.