French officials warn of drowning dangers amid extreme heat, with 40 dead since last week

Millions of people across Europe were exposed to extreme temperatures on Tuesday, with 40 fatalities from drowning recorded in France in the past week as residents seek relief from the searing heat.

France recorded its hottest day ever on Tuesday amid an exceptional heat wave, the national weather agency said.

It said France’s national thermal indicator — an average of temperatures measured at 30 weather stations — hit a new record of 29.8 C. The previous record of 29.4 C dated back to heat waves of August 2003 and July 2019.

Daytime highs above 40 C were also recorded in many individual weather stations, Meteo France said. The agency said extreme conditions are expected to last at least until the end of the week: “Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year.”

In a country without widespread air conditioning, schools, trains and sporting events remain impacted, while dozens of drowning deaths have been reported since the weekend.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that the 40 people who died by drowning since last Thursday were mainly young people. French Sports Minister Marina Ferrari said she understood the urge to escape the heat but warned against swimming in unauthorized or dangerous areas.

The figures cited by Lecornu would represent an increase over the typical number of drowning fatalities, with government statistics showing that 409 people died from drowning over a 122-day period last year, for an average of 23 deaths per week.

On Monday, first responders were unable to resuscitate two children, aged two and four, who were found unconscious by their mother in the family car outside their home, said a prosecutor in Carpentras, southeast France. In one area of Paris, the municipality offered free cinema tickets to those under 25 or over 65, for a break in a place cooled by air conditioning.

The heat wave is exceptionally intense, coming very early in the summer, “but with a still uncertain duration,” the weather service said. It has already been compared to the August 2003 heat wave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them among older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

France introduced a heat watch warning system after that heat wave.

Britain toils under extreme heat conditions

Across the British Channel, the Met Office issued a red extreme heat warning for Wednesday and Thursday, with forecasts suggesting June’s all-time daily temperature record could be broken.

Temperatures of around 37 C are expected in southern England, with up to 35 C in southeast Wales. The peak of the heat wave is now forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, when highs could reach at least 39 C. Conditions are expected to ease by Friday, the weather agency said.

In Italy, the Health Ministry has issued its highest level alert for 15 cities and the government has taken measures to suspend or reduce their work in certain sectors. After scorching mornings, storms are expected to form over the Alps and Apennines on Tuesday afternoon, bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and occasional hail, with some spreading into northern plains later in the day, meteorologists said.

Spain’s state meteorological agency has issued red alerts across parts of the country, warning of dangerous heat, with temperatures expected to reach 44 C. The warnings follow an already extreme day on Monday, including a peak above 45 C in Andujar. Overnight conditions have offered little relief, with around 30 monitoring stations still recording temperatures above 25 C early on Tuesday.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month. The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

The EU monitoring agency found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.