Europe baked by record heat wave, France hits hottest day ever

France recorded its hottest day on record as the national average temperature reached 30.0 degrees Celsius, with the previous day’s record broken again and a new overnight high also set. Météo-France said the country had never logged a hotter day since measurements began in 1947, while temperatures climbed to 43.8 degrees in Pulluau and authorities placed a record 58 departments under red alert.

The strain spread well beyond France’s weather maps. Hundreds of schools closed or cut hours, tourist sites shut early and rail journeys were canceled as the heatwave pushed public services into emergency mode. In France, the danger was not only the temperature itself but the way the system responded to it: children were sent home, transport schedules were disrupted and hospitals were left to manage patients in conditions built for a cooler climate.

That failure was most visible in Spain, where the SATSE nurses union said some hospital facilities lacked air conditioning and temperatures in parts of buildings reached and exceeded 30 degrees. The union said staff had been told only to close windows and lower blinds, a stark measure in units meant to care for the most vulnerable people when heat becomes a medical risk.

The crisis was not confined to one country. Spain logged its hottest June days on record on June 23 and 24, while the United Kingdom issued a red extreme heat warning for June 24 and 25 and recorded a provisional new June daily high of 36.1 degrees at Gosport in southern England. Germany and Switzerland also issued red alerts in several cities, and Italy’s Health Ministry declared red alerts in 15 cities, including Milan and Rome, as blackouts hit Milan and Turin amid a surge in air-conditioning demand.

Europe’s latest heatwave came after another unusually early and intense burst of extreme heat in the second half of May, underscoring how quickly the continent is cycling through conditions its infrastructure was never designed to handle. The World Meteorological Organization said 40 people reportedly died in drowning accidents in France during the heatwave, a reminder that people looking for relief can run into other deadly risks.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged the public to watch out for elderly, isolated and vulnerable people. The World Meteorological Organization and UN partners said they were mobilizing heat-health action plans for millions of people, while UN climate chief Simon Stiell said the heatwave carried the “fingerprints of the climate crisis.” Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, is heating at about twice the global average, and the gap between rising temperatures and public readiness is now visible in hospitals, schools and power grids.