Heatwave linked to more than 10,000 excess deaths in Europe
Europe recorded more than 10,000 excess deaths during the late-June heatwave, EuroMOMO data show, with more than 9,000 involving people aged 65 and over.
- A late-June heatwave across 27 European countries is linked to more than 10,000 excess deaths recorded in a single week.
- The elderly were disproportionately affected, with individuals aged 65 and over accounting for over 9,000 of the excess deaths.
- While the figures represent excess deaths from all causes, researchers identified the extreme heat as the only clear explanation for the unusual mortality spike.
European countries recorded more than 10,000 excess deaths during a record-breaking heatwave that swept across the western part of the continent in late June.
The data, compiled from national mortality statistics across 27 European countries, covered the week of June 22–28, when extreme temperatures peaked in France, Spain, the United Kingdom and several other countries.
More than 9,000 of the excess deaths involved people aged 65 and over, according to EuroMOMO, a network supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.
Extreme temperatures can cause fatal heatstroke and aggravate cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, placing older people at particularly high risk.
Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters that such a sharp rise in mortality was unusual for this time of year.
“To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s really high,” he noted, adding that extreme heat was the only clear explanation for the scale of the increase.
Scientists have concluded that the late-June heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-induced climate change, which is making periods of extreme heat more frequent and severe.
The EuroMOMO figures cover excess deaths from all causes and do not establish that every additional death was directly caused by the heat. However, researchers identified no other known major factor, such as a COVID-19 outbreak, that could explain the total of 10,650 excess deaths recorded that week.
The number of deaths across the same countries had averaged about 500 below expected levels each week during the preceding eight weeks. EuroMOMO noted that the latest figures could be revised as additional information becomes available.
The network does not provide a country-by-country breakdown of excess deaths, but France and Belgium were the only European countries classified as having “very high” excess mortality during the final week of June.
Belgium’s public health institute, Sciensano, reported that the country recorded its highest level of excess mortality during a heatwave since records began in 2000.
A separate scientific study estimated that 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales during heatwaves in May and June.
Researchers from Imperial College London, the UK Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimated that 42% of those deaths were attributable to the additional heat caused by global warming.
