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BERLIN: Tens of millions face a weekend of extreme temperatures in Europe as a deadly heatwave moves eastwards, with German forecasters warning that more records could be broken and eastern countries issuing a slew of red alerts for the coming days.
Scores of people have died either through heat-related illness or drowning accidents and emergency services in several countries have said their facilities are saturated, as an unprecedented hot spell that has already seen records tumble in Britain, France, Switzerland drags on.
Street parties and music festivals were cancelled in France, Germany and the Netherlands, while France and Switzerland switched off nuclear reactors as the water used for cooling was in danger of overheating nearby rivers.
Switzerland broke the record for its hottest-ever June day for the third day in a row on Saturday, with the mercury rising to 39 degrees Celsius in the northern city of Basel.
Demand for electric fans has shot up, and Asian air conditioning makers report a European sales boom
Since June 18, at least 74 people have drowned in France amid the severe heatwave, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. Most of the deaths occurred “in unauthorised, unsupervised bodies of water such as rivers, lakes and ponds,” he said.
The German Weather Service (DWD) issued a red alert for most of the country. “It can’t be ruled out that temperatures could approach 42 degrees Celsius,” the service said, which would mean another all-time heat record just a day after the previous one.
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels — and are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
‘Everything is hot’
Romania was the latest country to issue a red alert, putting out a warning that almost the entire country would face extreme heat from June 29 to July 1.
Slovakia had issued a similar warning and confirmed that Friday night had been the warmest on record with temperatures not dropping below 26.3C.
The Czech Republic recorded its highest-ever temperature on Saturday, with a reading of 40.6C at a weather station in Doksany north of Prague, the national meteorological service said. The new high beat a previous record of 40.4C, set in 2012 in Dobrichovice southwest of the capital, the service added.
Demand for electric fans has shot up, and Asian air conditioning makers have reported a European sales boom.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2026
