Scorching heat wave across Europe triggers infrastructure and health crisis

The extreme heat that gripped Europe in late June broke records in France and claimed hundreds of lives. Experts say governments must make urgent infrastructure investments to adapt to climate change.

Scraper SystemJuly 01, 2026, 09:30 AM

Scorching heat wave across Europe triggers infrastructure and health crisis

The European continent is struggling with an intense heat wave that took hold in the last week of June. Experts are warning that rather than treating this as a temporary emergency, governments must permanently adapt infrastructure to climate change.

Consecutive record temperatures

June 24, 2025, went down as the hottest day in French history. Thermometers in the western town of Balyo hit 44 degrees Celsius. The heat wave began on the Iberian Peninsula and swept across France, England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, then moved toward Central Europe and the Balkans.

Al Jazeera's monitoring unit, drawing on data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, revealed striking figures. Temperatures in Paris rose 16 degrees above the seasonal average, while Barcelona saw a 7-degree increase and Lisbon an 11-degree rise. London hit 35 degrees, 14 degrees above normal. Brussels and Berlin recorded 35 degrees, while Rome and Milan exceeded 36 degrees. Prague and Budapest saw increases of up to 10 degrees.

Loss of life and impact on daily life

By scientific definition, temperatures remaining above seasonal norms for more than three consecutive days are called a heat wave. Experts say that high nighttime temperatures prevent the body from cooling down, increasing pressure on the heart, lungs and circulatory system and raising the risk of death.

Health authorities in France announced that 1,000 people, mostly elderly, died during the peak of the wave; the number is expected to rise as data is completed. In other European cities, schools were closed, train services disrupted, hospitals were overloaded, and demand for water and electricity surged.

The effects were not limited to human health. In Hungary, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant was forced to reduce output because the Danube River, which it uses for cooling water, had warmed. In Italy, low water levels in the Po River allowed saltwater to push 18 kilometers inland, threatening farmland and wetlands.

Infrastructure deficiencies and expert warnings

According to Kerim al-Jundi, director of the Carbon Energy and Climate Research Institute, European governments still approach these waves with a 'temporary emergency' mindset, placing the entire burden on individuals. Al-Jundi emphasized that the real issue is the shift of Central Europe's climate northward and the Mediterranean climate moving into Central Europe. 'Countries like France, England, Germany and Austria are not prepared for this major change,' al-Jundi said, noting that even Kuwait or Ahvaz, which see 55 degrees annually, did not record the 1,000 deaths seen in France during the recent wave.

The expert said that ventilation, shading and cooling systems in European countries are extremely inadequate; railway lines are not designed to withstand current temperatures, so services are canceled to prevent tracks from buckling in extreme heat. Runways melting at some airports showed the severity of the situation. Al-Jundi said governments must rapidly upgrade infrastructure and accept heat waves not as an 'emergency' but as a new climatic reality.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 489,000 people die globally every year from heat-related causes. In 2003, 70,000 deaths were recorded, and in 2022, 62,000. The WHO recommends protecting vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the sick and children, avoiding going outside during midday, drinking plenty of fluids, and taking extra precautions for outdoor workers.

Scorching heat wave across Europe triggers infrastructure and health crisis