{"id":1055431,"date":"2026-06-28T12:18:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1055431\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T12:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:18:44","slug":"france-records-1000-excess-deaths-this-week-due-to-exceptional-heatwave-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1055431\/","title":{"rendered":"France records 1,000 excess deaths this week due to \u2018exceptional\u2019 heatwave \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

France<\/a> recorded about 1,000 excess deaths this week because of an \u201cexceptional\u201d heat wave that\u2019s continuing to scorch Europe.<\/p>\n

Record temperatures pushed daily deaths above 1,400 on Thursday and Friday, from 900 to 1,000 per day in April and May, Sant\u00e9 Publique France said in a statement Sunday. The figures are likely to be revised higher because they\u2019re based on digital certificates, which typically account for about 60 per cent of fatalities nationwide, the public health authority said.<\/p>\n

Of the deaths recorded since Wednesday, 85 per cent were people aged 65 or higher, it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme heat of these past days has a lagged effect, notably for fragile people but also for some young people,\u201d French health minister St\u00e9phanie Rist said in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche. The effects can persist for weeks for people suffering chronic diseases, which means that pressure on health services is expected to last beyond the drop in temperatures, she said.<\/p>\n

The government recently earmarked \u20ac100 million in emergency spending to buy air conditioners, fans and other equipment for hospitals.<\/p>\n

France experienced its hottest day on record on Wednesday with 40.3 degrees recorded in Paris. Video: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

Scientists said the stifling heatwave would have been virtually impossible without man-made climate change<\/a>, which has made this week\u2019s night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been even two decades ago. <\/p>\n

Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were braced for record temperatures of over 40 degrees on Sunday as the heatwave spread east.<\/p>\n

More than 191 million people in Europe faced temperatures of at least 35 degrees on Sunday, with extreme heat warnings in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s all-time temperature record of 40.2 degrees from 1921 could be broken on Sunday. The Polish government\u2019s security agency sent out text messages urging people to \u201cavoid the sun and strenuous activity\u201d, drink water and wear hats throughout the weekend. Multiple cities set up water curtains to help residents keep cool in the heat.<\/p>\n

\"AA restaurant staff member sprays people with water to help cool them at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic on Saturday. Photograph: Fadi Yousef\/EPA <\/p>\n

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute said it expected temperatures to exceed 41 degrees \u201cby quite a bit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic\u2019s all-time record of 40.6 degrees was recorded on Saturday. Temperatures did not drop below 20 degrees at more than 100 meteorological stations overnight. But the institute said Sunday would be even hotter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s record will most definitely be broken again,\u201d it said. It also expected further records for the warmest night ever to be broken on Sunday night. <\/p>\n

\"AA man cools off at a mist station during earlier this week. Photograph: Fadi Yousef\/EPA <\/p>\n

Night-time records were also broken in Germany, with Bautzen in eastern Saxony reporting an overnight minimum temperature of 29.4 degrees. The Berlin police used water cannon to help residents of the capital cool off on Saturday and will repeat the operation on Sunday. German rail operator Deutsche Bahn advised against all non-essential travel over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s new preliminary German record of 41.5 degrees in Moeckern-Drewitz in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt topped a record set just the \u2060day before of 41.3 degrees near Saarbruecken on the French border, Germany\u2019s Meteorological Service said. <\/p>\n

Near Hamburg, the main traffic lane on one of Germany\u2019s busiest motorways was partially closed after heat split the asphalt.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice water canon sprays tourists at the Brandenburg Gate during a heat wave in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday. Photograph: Krisztian Bocsi\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n

In Slovakia, temperatures above 39 degrees were reported in the southwest of the country, with the all-time record of 40.3 degrees, set in 2007, likely to be beaten on Sunday or Monday. The country could see three consecutive days of temperatures above 40 degrees for the first time since records began in 1871, forecasts show.<\/p>\n

The Danish Meteorological Institute meanwhile reported a 37 degrees reading north of the city of Aarhus \u200con \u200cSaturday, \u200bthe highest on record since measurements began in 1874.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the heating up of the River Danube led Hungary\u2019s Paks nuclear power plant \u200bto cut output on one of its reactors on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\"ParisiansParisians swimming in the Canal Saint-Martin during the heatwave in the city of Paris on Saturday. Photogra[h: Brune Simon\/Hans Lucas \/ AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s health \u2060ministry issued a red alert for the heatwave in 18 cities including Milan, Rome, \u2060Turin, Venice, Genoa, Florence and Bologna for Saturday and \u200bSunday. The flow of the River Po has dropped dramatically, with seawater advancing deep inland, posing threats to local farming and the ecosystem of Italy\u2019s most important waterway.<\/p>\n

Even at night in the Alps there was little relief, with temperatures in Bolzano in Italy\u2019s South Tyrol never falling below 25.4 degrees, the city\u2019s meteorologist Dieter Peterlin said, a June record. Ecologists fear for Europe\u2019s glaciers.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The media should treat this heat as the very bad news it isOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Across Europe, cultural landmarks have had to close, farming has suffered, and some hospitals have struggled to cope. The heatwave has pushed temperatures \u200bwell above their seasonal average, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor, driven by a phenomenon known as an Omega block because of a \u200bshape similar to the Greek letter.<\/p>\n

This weather pattern traps a bulging ball of hot air over regions for extended periods, with cooler air on its fringes. – Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France recorded about 1,000 excess deaths this week because of an \u201cexceptional\u201d heat wave that\u2019s continuing to scorch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1055432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2311,2000,299,1824,193109,117936,219435],"class_list":["post-1055431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-climate-change","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-met-eireann","tag-weather-events","tag-weather-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116827699944835122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}