Much of Europe is bracing for yet another scorching heatwave following periods of record drought that have driven rivers to historic lows, ignited historic forest fires and contributed to thousands of deaths.
Evidence and Data
The United Kingdom’s Met Office warned at the weekend that the summer’s fifth hot spell was about to take hold in a country whose infrastructure was built for a more temperate, cooler climate. The heatwave comes after mainland France and Switzerland saw their widest-ranging droughts for July on record, according to an AFP of data released by Europe’s Copernicus climate observatory on Monday (August 10). Europe’s weather warning system, MeteoAlarm, on Monday (August 10) also said scorching temperatures are already being felt across much of Italy and coastal areas of Croatia. In France, the national weather agency Meteo-France warned on Monday (August 10) that the southeast would see temperatures as high as 35C, spreading further across the country as the week progresses. Nearly 120 million Europeans live in regions where July 2026 was the hottest ever recorded, according to an AFP analysis of national weather agencies and Copernicus climate data.
Here’s what to know as temperatures soar again across the continent, the fastest-warming on the planet due to human-caused climate change.
Nearly three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales is already officially in drought, with more than 27 million people under water-use restrictions, and with the environment department warning on Monday that “all regions of the country are experiencing pressure on their water resources”.
Outlook
The agency also warned that due to climate change, “future summers will generally be hotter than those experienced to date”.
