The week of scorching heat that hit Europe this June proved exceptionally deadly. Data shows that major heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent on the continent.
About 16,000 more people died in Europe during the heatwave, according to an analysis by the European Mortality Monitoring Network. Most of these deaths were recorded in countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, which are not used to such high temperatures.
The map shows how much higher the average maximum daily temperatures were between June 22 and 28 compared to the average for the same dates in the period 1991–2020.
By the end of June, temperatures had reached 38 degrees Celsius across much of the continent, including Italy and Spain. However, such a significant increase in deaths was only seen in northwestern Europe, in countries that were least prepared for such an extreme event.
Air conditioning use remains low in most of Northern Europe, where the issue has also taken on political implications, as is happening in France.
Since deaths directly attributable to extreme temperatures are difficult to accurately estimate, researchers examine "excess mortality" - that is, the number of deaths from any cause that exceeds what would be expected for that time of year, based on historical data.
Typically, outbreaks of "excess mortality" are recorded in the winter, due to the circulation of respiratory viruses. However, during the week of the June heat wave alone, more excess deaths were recorded than in any other week last winter.
Large and deadly heat waves have until recently been rare in modern European history. In 2003, one such heat wave hit the continent, leaving tens of thousands dead.
During another wave, in 2022, just over 16,000 additional deaths were recorded in just one week in July, according to data from the European Mortality Monitoring Network. But then it was the European south that experienced the most extreme temperatures, with the mercury in Spain reaching 46 degrees Celsius.
This year's June was finally recorded as the warmest in Western Europe's history, with scientists warning that climate change could bring even more extreme phenomena in the future. /Taken from the New York Times, adapted into Albanian by LAPSI.al
