Europe's record-breaking heatwave cost more than 10,000 lives in June

Part of a wildfire in Almeria, Andalucia, that killed 11 people in southern Spain last week. Photo: EMA Infoca/PA

European countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed.

As the continent continues to be gripped by heatwaves, the toll of the extreme weather has been laid bare in the stark figures.

A woman sits on the floor of a crowded carriage on metro line 11 during the heatwave in Paris last month. The extreme heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature ​records in France, Spain ​and the UK. Photo: Gauthier Bedrignans/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

The vast majority of those who died in the June heatwave — more ​than 9,000 — were among people aged 65 and above, according to data published by ‌EuroMOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organisation.

Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most ​vulnerable.

"To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s ​really high," Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, which hosts ⁠EuroMOMO, said. "It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme ​heat," Mr Vestergaard added.

Scientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, ​which is making heatwaves more frequent and intense.

The data, pooled from national mortality statistics in 27 European countries, included excess deaths from all causes, not just heat-related ones, during the week of June 22 to 28, when ​the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, Britain and other countries.

But scientists said there were no other ​known major factors, such as covid-19 outbreaks, that would have contributed to the spike to 10,650 excess deaths in that week.

The ‌same ⁠European countries' combined mortality over the previous eight weeks was, on average, around 500 deaths per week below typical levels. The EuroMOMO data could be revised in future weeks as more data comes in.

A thermometer shows the temperature of 46.8 degrees Celsius during the heatwave in Toulouse, France, last month. Photo: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

The extreme heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature ​records in France, Spain ​and the UK.

EuroMOMO does ⁠not publish excess deaths per individual country, but it noted that France and Belgium were the only two countries in Europe to log "very high ​excess" mortality in the last week of June.

Belgium's excess mortality was the ​highest during any ⁠heatwave in records going back to 2000, according to the country's public health institute Sciensano.

Part of a wildfire in Almeria, Andalucia, that killed 11 people in southern Spain last week. Photo: EMA Infoca/PA

A separate scientific study, published on Monday, estimated 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone during ⁠the ​May and June heatwaves.

Of those deaths, 42% were caused by ​the extra heat that global warming contributed to the heatwaves, according to the findings by Imperial College London, the UK ​Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Ireland will continue to see high temperatures throughout the week, while mainland Europe is still contending with wildfires, and the likes of Italy braced to go above 40C in places.

Parts of France are on orange alert for high temperatures ahead of Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow. The Eiffel Tower closed at 4pm on Saturday and Sunday because of extreme heat in Paris, with the Louvre Museum following suit today.

- Reuters and Irish Examiner