Here's the latest
• Record temperatures: Punishing temperatures are scorching Europe as it swelters under a fierce heat dome, bringing dangerous conditions to swaths of the fastest-warming continent. Hundreds of records have been broken, with many more set to fall as the heat intensifies today and tomorrow.
• Deadly impact: France, at the epicenter of the extreme conditions, endured its hottest day since records began on Tuesday. At least 40 people have drowned seeking relief from the heat since June 18, the French Prime Minister announced yesterday.
• Rare warnings: The UK Met Office has issued exceptionally rare “Red Extreme Heat Warnings” for today and tomorrow, with temperatures forecast to soar to at least 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit (39 Celsius), which would obliterate the UK’s June heat record of 96.08 degrees Fahrenheit (35.6 Celsius).
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"It's just crazy heat": Temperatures in England expected to soar today
People in the UK are experiencing record breaking June heat today.
Temperatures in parts of southern England today and tomorrow are set to soar into the middle mid-90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius), with some locations even topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).
CNN’s Clare Sebastian spoke to people in London, England to find out how they’re adapting and coping during Europe’s heatwave.
See our video above for more.
People in London describe how they're coping with high temperatures
Highs of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) are expected in London today, according to the British Met Office, and people in the city are approaching the heat with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Jessie Stuart, an American who is in London for work, told Reuters that the weather was “very unexpected.”
Hear more from people in London on the heat wave in the video above.
WHO chief says Europe's heat wave is putting health at risk
The World Health Organization has urged leaders to prioritize climate action amid this week’s heat wave in Europe.
“Europe’s heat wave is closing schools and putting people’s health at risk,” director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X.
Tedros urged: “We cannot afford further delay.”
“Leaders must prioritise investment in climate-resilient health systems, while also accelerating (climate action) and mitigating the drivers of the climate crisis,” he added.
How can you keep cool in a heat wave?
It can feel impossible to cool down during a heatwave, especially without air conditioning. But there are some simple tips that can help.
To keep yourself cool, experts recommend:
- Staying hydrated
- Avoiding strenuous activity during the hottest parts of the day
- Staying in the shade
- Wearing light, loose clothing made from breathable fabrics like cotton
- Taking cool showers, or placing hands and feet in a basin of cold water
- Staying in front of a fan
And to keep your home cool, experts suggest:
- Closing blinds and curtains during the day
- Closing windows during the day when the heat is at its most intense, and then opening them again in the early morning and evening to ventilate the house
- Turning off electrical appliances that emit heat, like plasma TV screens, when you’re not using them
Some people, like those who are elderly, newborn, pregnant or who have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or spinal cord injuries, may have more difficulty regulating their body temperature so it’s important to check in on them too.
Eiffel Tower and Louvre cut opening hours, thousands of schools close and trains disrupted
Thousands of schools across the UK and France have closed Wednesday, tourist attractions including the Eiffel Tower have restricted opening hours and railway disruption is expected across Europe as the continent grapples with a brutal heat wave this week.
In France, 6,000 schools were either closed or had made adaptations, education minister Édouard Geffray said Wednesday. Hundreds of schools in the UK closed and many schools in the Netherlands moved to a “tropical timetable,” with shorter days. Unlike the US, it’s rare for schools in Europe to be air-conditioned meaning it’s incredibly difficult to keep students cool.
Warnings of railway disruption in the UK, Belgium and France have been issued amid fears extreme heat could affect rail infrastructure and potentially cause tracks to buckle. In the UK, people have been told to only travel by rail if it’s absolutely necessary on Wednesday and Thursday.
And in Paris, the Eiffel Tower – which normally stays open until 12:45 a.m. in peak season – closed very early at 4 p.m. Tuesday and will do so again Wednesday. The Louvre Museum will close two hours early from Wednesday until Saturday.
Even if UK temperatures don't beat all-time highs of 2022, this heat wave is worse. Here's why
Temperatures in the UK are breaking June records, and even if they don’t reach the all-time record of 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit (40.3 Celsius) set in the summer of 2022, experts are warning this heat wave could be even more dangerous.
The reason is high humidity, which makes the heat much harder to cope with.
Dr Heather Massey from the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth told the Science Media Center (SMC) that while the human body has ways of coping with the heat, this becomes less effective when humidity is elevated.
“Higher moisture levels in the air reduce the effectiveness of sweating that would cool the body,” she said.
Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London said in a SMC briefing on Tuesday that sweat will evaporate really quickly in dry air, cooling down the skin.
“If you are in a very humid atmosphere, let’s say 100% humidity, or close to, then it’s impossible to evaporate that water. So, there can be no cooling effect, and sweat will just drip off you, and dripping sweat has no cooling benefit at all,” he said.
Heat is testing the limits of human survivability. Here’s how it kills
Heat is the deadliest type of extreme weather, and the human-caused climate crisis is making heat waves more severe and prolonged. Coupled with high humidity, conditions in some places are approaching the limits of human survivability — the point at which our bodies simply cannot adapt.
Here is what happens to your body in the heat:
Dehydration: Sweating is the body’s way to cool down – but it can also make you dehydrated because you may be losing fluids faster than you can replenish them. So don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink.
Heart: Your heart must work much harder to keep your body’s internal temperature stable, pushing blood quickly toward your skin, where it can release heat — this is the reason you may look flushed when you’re hot. And as sweat pours out, the loss of fluids reduces blood volume, meaning your heart is forced to pump even harder to maintain blood pressure.
Brain: Blood flow to your brain decreases in extreme heat as breathing speeds up and blood vessels constrict inside your neck and skull. This deprives your brain of the oxygen and glucose it needs, potentially affecting your cognitive abilities, worsening any mental health conditions and leading to risky or poor decision-making.
Heatstroke: When the body can’t use its usual tricks to cool down, its core temperature can reach catastrophic levels. A person with heatstroke can become disoriented and lose consciousness. Major organs start to shut down – the barriers that separate the gut from the rest of the intestines can become more porous, leaking deadly toxins into the bloodstream and the heart fails.
Read more about the effects of heat – and how to keep yourself safe – here.
France endures unrelenting nighttime heat
France didn’t get much sleep last night. The country recorded its second hottest night on record, just behind Monday night’s all-time record of 70.9 degrees Fahrenheit (21.6 Celsius).
The mercury hit a national average of 70.7 degrees Fahrenheit (21.5 Celsius) Tuesday night, making it the country’s hottest day on record.
In Paris, temperatures didn’t dip below 77.9 degrees Fahrenheit (25.5 Celsius) all night. By 8 a.m. local temperatures were already in the high 80s Fahrenheit (30s Celsius) on the island of Corsica.
More than half of the country’s mainland regions — 58 of 96 — were under the most severe red heat alert, an all-time record.
In the Finistère region of Brittany, some 68,000 households were without electricity this morning, according to local authorities. “Sensitive” sites, including hospitals and care homes, are being prioritized for repairs.
As people seek ways to beat the heat, the death toll continues to climb. Yesterday evening, two more people drowned while trying to cool off, including a six-year-old child, bringing the number of drowning victims to at least 42 across France since June 18, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
“We’re cooking in our houses.” Climate professor advises people to close windows and shutters
Experts are warning people to “keep the sun out” in any way they can as few homes across Europe have air conditioning, intensifying the risk posed by record high temperatures to the elderly and the very young.
“We’re basically cooking in our in our houses in many cases within much of Europe,” Peter Thorne, Director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, told CNN’s Rosemary Church on Wednesday. “Homes have generally been designed to retain heat.”
“If they’ve got shutters, close the shutters… Towels or things they can put against the window and cool the windows… Don’t open the window in the middle of the day. That’s the worst thing you can do,” Thorne said. “So seek out cool areas as much as you can, use the amenities and the supports that are available,” he advised.
The climate crisis is exacerbating what would have already been an “anomalously warm” summer by “adding fuel to the fire,” Thorne said.
Heat waves, like the one Europe is sweltering through, are being “supercharged by humans, by our emissions of heat trapping greenhouse gases,” he added.
“Climate change is… adding probably three four degrees. That will be confirmed over coming weeks by various studies, undoubtedly.”
Heat wave expands and intensifies over western Europe
The relentless heat wave which has set hundreds of June records — and even all-time records — across western Europe in the past days is set to expand, bringing dangerous heat to much of the United Kingdom.
The extreme conditions are driven by a heat dome, a high pressure weather system that can trap heat for days, even weeks. The heat has been amplified by climate change, driven by humans burning fossil fuels.
Parts of southern England have already topped 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) the past three days, but today’s and tomorrow’s temperatures are set to soar into the middle mid-90s Fahrenheit (mid-30s Celsius) with some locations even topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).
Temperatures are almost certain to smash the June UK temperature record of 96.08 degrees Fahrenheit (35.6 Celsius), last set in 1976.
The heat will also come with significant humidity and little relief in the nighttime hours. This has prompted the UK Met Office to issue the most extreme heat warnings across central and southern England as well as Wales.
Heat records will be also broken today from Spain to Germany, but the most anomalous temperatures will be across France. Western and central parts of the country will likely be more than 27 degrees Fahrenheit (15 Celsius) above normal, with temperatures topping 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) in some areas including Paris.
France may even set a record for its hottest day ever — a mark that was just set yesterday.
Why is air conditioning so rare in Europe?
Even as brutal heat waves become longer, more frequent and more intense in Europe, air conditioning remains very rare in European homes. Nearly 90% of US homes have AC; in Europe it’s around 20%.
A big reason is many European countries historically had little need for cooling, especially in the north. Heat waves rarely reached the prolonged high temperatures Europe now regularly endures.
So, AC has traditionally been seen as a luxury, especially as installing and running it can be expensive. Energy costs in many European countries are higher than in the US, while incomes tend to be lower.
It can also be harder — and involve more red tape — to instal AC in the continent’s older homes. Then there’s the policy angle. Europe has pledged to become “climate neutral” by 2050 and a sharp increase in air conditioners will make climate commitments even harder to reach.
Not only are air conditioners energy guzzlers, but they also push heat outside, further raising temperatures. This impact is especially severe in Europe’s generally dense cities.
Attitudes around AC in Europe are changing, however, as the continent becomes a climate hotspot.
Read more on Europe’s lack of air conditioning, here
What is driving the heat across Europe this week?
The soaring temperatures are caused by a heat dome — a vast area of stagnant high pressure parked over swaths of Europe, which acts like a lid on a pot, stubbornly trapping heat. It supresses clouds and allows sunshine to bake the ground.
Heat domes are not unusual for the continent over the summer, but the temperatures — and the margin by which records will be broken — are, scientists say. Temperatures in parts of Western Europe are running at around 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius) above normal for this time of year.
The extreme heat has been supercharged by global warming, driven by humans burning fossil fuels, which raises the background temperature, making every heat wave more intense. Europe is the planet’s fastest warming continent, heating at around two to three times the global average.
Heat slowly shifts into central Europe for the weekend
Welcome to our coverage.
The heat dome affecting Europe will remain firmly entrenched as it slowly settles over central Europe this weekend.
On Friday, the most anomalous temperatures will stretch from England and Central France across the Low Countries and Germany. Temperatures will be 18 to 27 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15 Celsius) above average across the entire region with widespread temperatures in the mid-90s to early 100s (mid-30s to above 40 Celsius).
The peak of the heat wave will be centered over Germany Saturday with many cities throughout the country expected to reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).
Temperatures will decline slightly Friday and Saturday across portions of the UK and France, but the more significant relief for these areas will come Sunday as the heat dome continues to shift eastward. Areas from Germany and Italy to Austria, Czechia, Hungary and Poland will see widespread temperatures in the mid-90s to low 104 degrees Fahrenheit (mid 30s to 40 degrees Celsius)
Temperature anomalies will slowly decrease over Eastern Europe, but much of next week will remain 9 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 10 Celsius) above average.
