Europe recorded 10,000 excess deaths during late-June heat wave, data shows

European countries reported sir thomas more than 10,000 surplusage deaths during the record-breaking heat up undulation that engulfed the due west of the continent in late June, official data shows.

The vast majority — 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 Organization.

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, told Reuters.

"It is difficult to ​explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat."

France records 1,000 additional deaths amid record breaking heat wave

Scientists have said the ⁠late-June heat wave would have been "virtually impossible" without ‌human-caused climate change, which is making heat waves 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 heat wave peaked in France, Spain, Britain and other countries.

How extreme heat impacts the human body — and why it eventually kills you

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.

The extreme heat wave ​at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools and smashed temperature records in France, Spain and the U.K.

Millions across Europe facing record temperatures from major heat wave

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 heat wave in records going back to 2000, according to the country's public health institute ​Sciensano.

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 per cent were caused by the extra heat that global warming contributed to the heatwaves, according to the findings by Imperial College London, the U.K. Met Office ⁠and the London School of Hygiene & ‌Tropical Medicine.

Add some “good” to your morning and evening.

The environment is changing. This newsletter is your weekly guide to what we’re doing about it.

---

---