Europe’s record heatwave has killed more than 1,300 people since June 21, with fires ignited by the extreme heat in Germany burning through forests contaminated with unexploded World War II ordnance, forcing firefighters to withdraw as munitions detonated in the blaze.
“Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Sunday. “Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling.”
France accounted for roughly 1,000 of those deaths. Public Health France said daily fatalities exceeded 1,200 on June 24 and surpassed 1,400 on each of the two following days, against a daily average of 900 to 1,000. The agency said 85% of the dead were aged 65 or older.
In eastern Germany, a wildfire broke out in the Gohrischheide, a former World War II and Soviet-era military training area where unexploded ordnance remains embedded in the soil.
A separate fire near Traisen in southwest Germany forced 650 evacuations after explosions halted firefighting operations and an ordnance disposal unit was brought in.
Germany recorded 41.7°C for the third consecutive day Sunday. Poland set an all-time national record of 40.5°C at Slubice, the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) confirmed. The Czech Republic hit 41.1°C at Doksany.
World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based scientific collaboration, reported Friday the heatwave would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change and is now 200 times more likely than 20 years ago.
“The episode is not finished,” French Health Minister Stephanie Rist told broadcaster BFM on Sunday, warning health effects could linger for up to 10 days after temperatures drop.
