Nearly 10,000 deaths linked to Europe's record heatwave
Excess mortality in Belgium reached the highest level on record (photo: Getty Images)
According to official data, more than 10,000 deaths were recorded across European countries during the record-breaking heatwave that swept across Western Europe in late June, Reuters reports.
The EuroMOMO monitoring network, supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, has published data on the heatwave in Europe.
According to the data, more than 10,000 people died in Europe because of the heat. The vast majority of them — more than 9,000 — were people aged 65 and older.
"To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s really high. It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat," said Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, where the EuroMOMO conference is taking place.
Scientists say the late June heatwave would have been "virtually impossible" without human-induced climate change, which has made heatwaves more frequent and more intense.
Reuters also noted that national statistics from 27 EU countries included excess mortality from all causes, not just those related to heat.
However, scientists say there were no other known significant factors, such as COVID-19, that could have contributed to the sharp increase in excess deaths to 10,650 between June 22 and June 28. During that period, the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and other countries.
EuroMOMO does not publish excess mortality data for individual countries, but the network said that France and Belgium were the only two countries in Europe where "very high excess" mortality was recorded during the last week of June.
According to data from the Belgian public health institute Sciensano, excess mortality in Belgium was the highest ever recorded during any heatwave since records began in 2000.
A separate scientific study published on Monday said that 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone during the May and June heatwaves.
Reuters also noted that the extreme heat at the end of June caused power outages, school closures, and record-breaking temperatures in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Heatwave in Europe
June became the hottest month on record in Western Europe, with extreme heat breaking temperature records.
As Europe grapples with the consequences of rising temperatures, Paris Deputy Mayor Audrey Pulvar argued that the United States remains one of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and bears significant responsibility for the effects of global warming.
