Official statistics reveal that the recent, record-breaking heatwave in Europe caused a devastating toll, resulting in more than 10,000 Europe excess deaths across the western region of the continent in late June.
The alarming spike in extreme weather mortality has shocked regional health officials. According to newly published data, the vast majority of these fatalities—more than 9,000—occurred among citizens aged 65 and over. These figures were compiled and published by EuroMOMO, an official network backed by both the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Medical professionals warn that intense summer weather kills by causing direct heat stroke. It also severely worsens existing heart and breathing conditions, leaving older citizens most at risk during severe seasonal spikes.
“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,” Vestergaard added.
How the Heatwave in Europe Fuelled a Public Health Emergency
Leading scientists have already stated that the late-June heatwave in Europe would have been virtually impossible without human-driven global warming.
The latest EuroMOMO statistics show how these environmental shifts make summer weather extremes far more frequent and dangerous.
The figures, pooled from national mortality statistics across 27 countries, track excess deaths from all causes during the week of June 22 to 28. This was the exact period when temperatures peaked across France, Spain, Britain, and neighboring nations.
Experts confirmed there were no other major factors, such as sudden COVID-19 outbreaks, that could explain the spike to 10,650 **Europe excess deaths** in that single week. In stark contrast, the combined mortality rate for these same nations over the previous eight weeks sat at an average of 500 deaths per week below typical historical levels.
The severe weather disrupted regional power grids, forced sudden school closures, and shattered all-time temperature records in France, Spain, and the UK. While local breakdowns are not published individually by the network, the reports noted that France and Belgium were the only two nations to log “very high excess” mortality at the end of the month.
In fact, Belgium’s specific figures represented the highest extreme weather mortality ever recorded in the country since records began in 2000, according to their public health institute, Sciensano.
A separate scientific study, published on Monday, estimated 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone during the broader May and June spikes. Of those tragic losses, 42% were caused directly by the extra warmth that global warming contributed to the air, according to findings by Imperial College London, the UK Met Office, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
