Heat waves linked to 50K deaths in Europe this summer, report says

Posted October 23, 2026 2:23 pm

1 min read

5:30 Climate change behind European heatwave: scientists

The crushing heat wave in Europe this summer has been linked to more than 50,000 deaths across the continent, analysis published in the British Medical Journal has found.

The death toll linked to the “excess heat” in urban areas in Europe this summer is the highest number on record, the research estimated.

Climate change, in particular, was responsible for two-thirds of the deaths, the report said, citing researchers from Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Researchers estimate 50,391 heat-related deaths, far exceeding the next highest death toll of 29,480 in 2022 and 28,462 deaths in 2003.

“Europe experienced several heat waves this summer, with severe effects on human health recorded. Western Europe, which saw its hottest ever summer, was hit especially hard,” the report said.

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Almost one-third of all heat-related deaths took place within a span of two weeks, from June 17 to July 1, it said. During this period, mean temperatures were more than 5°C above the 1991-2020 average.

1:55 Europe heat wave melts temperature records in France, U.K.

While the highest temperatures and highest estimated mortality were recorded in southern and western Europe, the report said “thousands of deaths were also estimated to have occurred in urban regions of typically cooler northern European countries such as the UK.”

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The death toll in England for the months of May and June were nearly double (2,900) the death during the same period in 2025 (1,504), according to the UK Health Security Agency.

“These numbers are a stark reminder that our hotter, more extreme summers are having an increasingly severe impact on public health,” Clair Barnes, extreme weather and climate change researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said in the BMJ report.