A brutal and sustained heatwave across Europe has claimed more than 1,300 lives since 21 June, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with temperatures shattering national records and overwhelming emergency services from the western Mediterranean to the Baltic. The WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, described the event as a “dress rehearsal” for future summers, noting that ambulance services in London had recorded their highest-ever daily volume of life-threatening emergency calls, while in some French cities medical emergency calls surged by up to 50 percent.

French public health authorities have released provisional figures pointing to approximately 1,000 excess deaths during the June heatwave, with the elderly disproportionately affected. An earlier, shorter heatwave in May had already caused an estimated 300 additional deaths, according to Santé publique France, with those over 75 accounting for 230 of the victims. In Germany, the national meteorological service recorded a preliminary all-time high of 41.7°C, while the city of Leipzig suspended its entire tram network after bitumen sealant melted and seeped into points and rails, prompting the transport company to appeal for volunteers with spatulas to help clear the tracks. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary all registered new national or local temperature records, with the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute calling the 1.5°C leap beyond the previous record “unprecedented.”

A discrepancy has emerged between the WHO’s statement that Italy recorded five heat-related deaths in a single 24-hour period and the Italian health ministry’s insistence that no such deaths have been confirmed. Maria Rosaria Campitiello, head of the ministry’s prevention department, said the national surveillance system, which relies on real-time data from municipalities, had not yet detected any mortality peak, characterising the WHO figure as a statistical projection. The WHO’s Kluge, however, maintained that emergency rooms across the continent are filling up and that Spain’s mortality monitoring system has already estimated over 300 excess deaths linked to the heat in a matter of days.

Satellite imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-3 mission captured land surface temperatures reaching 55°C in parts of central Spain and 48°C in Madrid on 23 June, the day France experienced its hottest June day on record. The heatwave, which scientists attribute to a stationary high-pressure “heat dome” drawing hot air from North Africa, has exposed the vulnerability of European infrastructure and housing designed for cold winters. In Switzerland, hospitals reported a sharp increase in activity, though federal statisticians said a full estimate of excess mortality would not be available for a year. The WHO has called an emergency meeting of member states for 6 July to assess preparedness for the next heatwave, as the current event shifts eastward and temperatures begin to ease in the west.