About 2,300 people died from the effects of extreme heat in 12 European cities during the worst heatwave that ended last week. This is according to a new rapid study by scientists from Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Reuters reports.
The analysis covers the 10-day period ending July 2, when abnormal heatwaves hit much of Western Europe - temperatures exceeded 40 °C in Spain and wildfires broke out in France.
Of the total death toll, scientists directly attribute about 1,500 deaths to climate change: global warming made the heat wave more intense and dangerous.
“Climate change has made it much hotter than it could be, and that makes these kinds of heat waves much more deadly,” said Imperial College London researcher Dr. Ben Clarke.
The sample included cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, London and Milan. Global warming is calculated to have increased temperatures during this heatwave by 4 degrees Celsius.
The scientists used validated epidemiological models and historical mortality data, as most heat-related deaths are not officially recorded and are not always published by governments.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this June was the third hottest June on the planet on record, just behind June 2023 and 2024. At the same time, last month was the warmest June ever recorded in Western Europe.
“With global warming, heat waves will become more frequent, more intense and will affect more people across Europe,” warned Samantha Burgess, Strategic Climate Manager at Copernicus.
Scientists remind: rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels, are leading to higher average global temperatures. This means that temperature peaks could be increasingly extreme when a heat wave arrives.
The researchers estimate that up to 61,000 people could die in Europe in the summer of 2022 due to heat waves, which shows that measures to protect people from extreme heat are still insufficient.
