Europe’s record heat wave shifts east as deadly warnings spread

Record-breaking heat pushed east across Europe on Thursday, with Germany, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic next in line for dangerous temperatures after days of punishing conditions in Spain, France and parts of western Europe. The shift has turned the episode into a continent-wide emergency, with heat warnings, transport disruption and strain on daily life spreading well beyond the countries that first absorbed the blast.

Spain has been one of the hardest hit. Its first official heatwave of 2026 began on June 21, and the Carlos III Health Institute estimated 212 heat-related deaths in four days in one update. A separate update put the toll at 327 heat-related deaths since Sunday, underscoring how quickly exposure has mounted as temperatures remained elevated day and night. The national meteorological agency AEMET reported record or near-record heat across the country.

France has faced a similar scale of pressure. Météo-France placed 54 departments under red alert, affecting roughly 39 million people, and the country recorded its hottest day on record since 1947 during the heatwave. The United Kingdom’s Met Office also issued a red extreme heat warning as the broader heat dome continued to drive temperatures toward or above 40C across parts of western and central Europe.

Scientists say the danger is no longer confined to the daytime peak. A World Weather Attribution analysis concluded the heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” 50 years ago without human-caused climate change, and found the extreme night-time temperatures seen this week are now about 100 times more likely than they were two decades ago. That matters for hospitals, power grids and workers who have little relief when the sun goes down and buildings fail to cool overnight.

The timing has made the event more alarming. It arrived just after the June 21 summer solstice, when Europe is only beginning the long summer season, and it followed a late-May heat wave that already set records in several European countries. With the hottest air now moving east, officials are confronting the same pattern in country after country: warming faster than preparedness, and hitting cities, infrastructure and health systems before they can adjust.