Red heatwave alert covers much of France as 20 drowning deaths reported

Millions of people across France are suffering after another night of scorching heat, with most of the population exposed to extreme and exceptional temperatures.

The national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 areas of France under a red heatwave alert.

In a country without widespread air-conditioning, schools, trains and sporting events remain affcted while 20 drowning deaths have been reported since the weekend.

Human-caused climate change is tied to increasing extreme weather and UN climate agency projections suggest the next five years will shatter more heat records.

“Sunshine continues to dominate across France, maintaining oppressive and exhausting heat throughout the country,” Meteo France said.

Extreme conditions are expected to last at least until the end of the week, with daytime highs above 40C in many towns.

“Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” Meteo France said.

The heatwave is exceptionally intense, coming very early in the summer, “but with a still uncertain duration”, the weather service said.

It has already been compared to the August 2003 heatwave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.

France introduced a heat watch warning system after that heatwave.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organisation’s Europe office said this month. The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

The EU monitoring agency found that in Europe, and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in south-eastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.