Europe braced for another day of extreme heat as warnings issued across UK, France and Italy

By Jakub Krupa • June 25, 2026 • World news

UK June heat record could be broken for the second consecutive day

Ajit Niranjan and Ashifa Kassam Heatwaves kill tens of thousands of people across Europe each year and the most scorching extremes have grown hotter, longer and more common as the planet has warmed. Climate breakdown is thought to have increased temperatures by 2C to 4C, according to a rapid analysis published by ClimaMeter on Monday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said Europe’s heatwave was “putting lives at risk” on Wednesday. He urged world leaders to invest more in resilient health systems and act faster on the climate emergency. “The data [is] clear: temperatures across Europe are rising at roughly twice the global average rate, increasing the likelihood and severity of extreme heat in the future,” he said. “We cannot afford further delay.” As the heatwave is set to hit large parts of Germany today, at least 101 million people in Europe are expected to experience temperatures in excess of 35C on Thursday, according to AFP estimates. That’s a higher number than yesterday’s 94 millions. Maximum temperatures are expected to surpass 30C for more than 380 million people across Europe excluding Turkey, representing nearly two-thirds of the population, AFP added, according to an analysis based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 population projections from the Joint Research Centre. Education editor The heatwave continues to disrupt the British education system with University College London, one of the UK’s largest universities, cancelling its student open days planned for Friday and Saturday, relieving thousands of prospective undergraduates and parents from travelling to central London. UCL said in a statement: “Please do not travel to campus for these events. We have taken this action with the safety and wellbeing of our visitors, students and staff as our primary consideration, and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.” Imperial College London also cancelled its open day today, and has asked students to join an “online open day” instead. King’s College London has confirmed that its open day on Saturday is going ahead. Open days are a crucial part of UK university recruitment drives, allowing potential students to inspect campus facilities and accommodation as well as meeting faculty and learn about courses on offer. Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said there had been an “increase in mortality” in the capital owing to the heatwave, without giving any figures, AFP reported. He said “pretty much all our indicators are in a critical state”, including calls to emergency medical services, calls to the fire brigade, ER admissions, and deaths, he told local TV. Ready for another day of temperatures way above 30C? The European heatwave of 2026 begins to slowly move eastwards, but things are still going to affect millions of Europeans. The red extreme heat warning continues in the UK; 72 out of 96 mainland French departments are covered by its French equivalent, as are 17 Italian cities – and these numbers are actually even higher than yesterday. It’s 33C in Nantes, 31C in Paris and it’s not even 10am local time. We will see the highs of 39C in Paris, 36C in Germany’s Cologne and Italy’s Bologna, 35C in Belgium’s Brussels, 33C in Berlin, and 31C in London. And Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw look on, wondering about what is going to happen as the temperatures there are expected to hit, erm, 40C over the weekend and on Monday. I will bring you all the latest updates on how the continent is (desperately trying) to cope in these temperatures. You can also tell us how you are doing and what are your strategies for this heat: It’s Thursday, 25 June 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live. Good morning.

Source: The Guardian