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More than 1,300 excess deaths have been linked to a record-breaking heatwave across Europe since June 21, the World Health Organization reported on June 28, 2026. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated via X that European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for these temperatures, as the extreme conditions persisted into a second week with new highs registered from France to Germany.
The World Health Organization figures show France accounted for around 1,000 of the excess deaths with Spain recording 327, the United Kingdom 25 and Poland one for a continental total exceeding 1,350. A Wikipedia entry on the 2026 European heatwaves compiled from official sources placed the overall count at 1,352 or higher. France’s Météo-France agency confirmed June 23 as the country’s hottest day on record since 1947 with temperatures reaching 44.3 degrees Celsius in Pissos according to multiple reports including BBC and DW.
World Weather Attribution analysis found fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in recent decades making a comparable June event virtually impossible without human-caused climate change. The group noted that heatwaves cause more deaths in Europe than all other natural hazards combined. A Nature Medicine study cited in the attribution report placed heat-related mortality above 60,000 across the continent in 2022.
Euronews reported that the following summer which was significantly cooler still saw over 47,000 heat-related deaths while last year’s early summer heatwave claimed an estimated 2,300 lives in only 12 European cities according to Grantham Institute data. The 2026 event began around the summer solstice with the focus initially on Western and Southern Europe before shifting toward the Balkans the World Meteorological Organization indicated in late June updates covered by France 24. Germany set a new record of 41.7 degrees Celsius during the wave DW News reported.
National health monitoring systems in affected countries fed data into the WHO tally with hospital admissions for heat stress rising sharply in several capitals. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasised the vulnerability of ageing populations in a post that aligned with alerts from public health authorities across the bloc. France recorded 212 heat-linked deaths by one statistical model in the initial phase according to local authorities cited by Euronews.
The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change has tracked rising heat mortality trends in Europe over the past decade placing the current wave in a pattern of increasing frequency and intensity. Spanish officials reported 108 fatalities since June 21 in one autonomous community alone per the Wikipedia compilation of regional figures. Similar monitoring in the United Kingdom identified 25 excess deaths tied to the temperatures through June 28.
WHO updates drew on daily mortality monitoring systems operational in multiple member states to produce the aggregate excess death count. The organisation has previously highlighted how urban design and building standards lag behind shifting climate realities in statements that echoed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s June 28 remarks.
