UK and
Switzerland record hottest ever June day as health emergencies surge in Europe
Temperatures
linked to third child’s death in France, where three-quarters of country is
under extreme heat alert
Damian
Carrington in London and Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
Thu 25
Jun 2026 18.53 CEST
The UK
and Switzerland both recorded the hottest-ever June temperatures on Thursday,
while brutally hot conditions supercharged by the climate crisis were linked to
the death of a third toddler in France and a sharp rise in medical emergencies
across Europe.
The UK’s
new provisional high of 36.4C (97.5F), recorded in Yeovilton, Somerset,
surpassed Wednesday’s June record of 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire, which had
beaten the previous peak of 35.6C set in Southampton in 1976.
In
Switzerland, the national weather agency said temperatures had exceeded 37C for
the first time in June, breaking a record set in 1947. “A temperature of 38C
was even recorded at the Basel weather station” – the same place where the 1947
record was logged, MétéoSuisse said on social media.
Earlier
on Thursday, the Met Office – the UK’s weather and climate service – said a
sweltering night in Cardiff broke another heat record for the country.
Temperatures only fell to 23.5C overnight in the Welsh capital, the highest
minimum temperature ever recorded in June.
The
scorching temperatures stretched across much of western Europe, with at least
101 million people expected to experience temperatures above 35C on Thursday,
according to the news agency Agence France-Presse.
In
France, where three-quarters of the country remained under an extreme heat
alert, the national weather agency registered the hottest night since
record-keeping began in 1947, as overnight temperatures from Wednesday to
Thursday broke a record set earlier this week.
Public
prosecutors linked the heat to the death of a three-year-old boy after he
became trapped in his family’s car in the suburbs of Paris. Officials said the
child had been thought to be napping but had instead climbed into the family
car and been unable to get out after the child locks on the doors activated.
Earlier
in the week, the extreme temperatures in France were linked to the deaths of
two young children, while the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said at least
40 people – many of them young – had drowned while swimming in unsupervised
areas.
For days,
officials across France have scrambled to cope with the searing heat, shutting
down three nuclear reactors after the surrounding cooling waters became too
hot, opening gardens and parks in Paris for the many struggling with heat-trap
homes, and trying to adapt school buildings for the hundreds of thousands of
teenagers sitting national exams.
The mayor
of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, said there had been an “increase in mortality” in
the capital but declined to provide figures. “Pretty much all our indicators
are in a critical state,” he told the broadcaster TF1, citing calls to
emergency services and hospital admissions and deaths.
The
office of France’s health minister, Stéphanie Rist, said 25 cardiac arrests
were recorded over 24 hours in Paris on Wednesday, compared with an average of
fewer than 10. Across the country, there had been a fourfold increase in
emergency room visits for heat-related reasons, it added.
In Spain,
where on Thursday most weather alerts had been lifted, estimates from a public
institute comparing daily death statistics with historical records suggested
the heatwave could have been responsible for 212 deaths across the country
between Sunday and Wednesday.
This week
Spain recorded its highest daily average temperatures in June since at least
1950, with Monday’s figure of 28.1C followed by 28.2C on Tuesday.
The
country’s often cooler north bore the brunt of the heatwave, with temperatures
exceeding 40C in parts of the Basque Country, and the Cantabrian village of
Tama hitting a record high of 43.7C on Tuesday.
In Italy,
courts in Palermo, Sicily, said they had suspended all non-urgent hearings
until 29 June due to “malfunctioning air conditioning”. The Italian newspaper
Corriere della Sera reported five deaths from the heatwave, including two
farmworkers and a builder.
The
Netherlands issued a rare red alert over the blistering temperatures expected
on Friday, while Germany was bracing for higher temperatures, with forecasts of
between 35C and 41C on Friday and Saturday in parts of the country.
Open-air
sports events were cancelled and the national rail operator, Deutsche Bahn,
warned customers not to travel owing to the high risk of disruption from
wildfires, heavy summer rain and thunderstorms.
Heatwaves
are now more severe and more likely because of the carbon pollution from
burning fossil fuels, with scientists estimating the current extreme
temperatures across Europe are between 2C and 4C higher as a result.
Many
thousands of people are likely to have died prematurely in the heat, but the
statistical analysis required to determine the number takes time to complete.
The UK Health Security Agency found that more than 10,000 people died in
Britain owing to summer heatwaves between 2020 and 2024.
The UKHSA
has extended its red heat-health alert by 24 hours to 11pm on Friday. It is
only the second red alert ever issued by the agency. The Met Office also
extended its red alert for south-east England until 9pm on Friday.
Rising
global heat is killing one person a minute around the world, health experts
said in October.
“Europe’s
savage heatwave is the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our
planet,” said Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief. “Schools closing, the
vulnerable dying, economies sweating: this is what the climate crisis looks
like in practice, and it’s just getting started.”
Global
heating will not stop until carbon emissions fall to net zero, but they rose
again in 2025.
Stiell
said: “Extreme heat will keep getting worse, and other climate impacts – from
mega-droughts, floods, wildfires and storms – will keep hammering every economy
and population harder each year. But the solutions are equally clear: a faster
shift to renewables – which are now much cheaper than fossil fuels – as well as
protecting forests. There’s no time to lose.”
The UK
parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to set a legally binding target of
an 87% cut in emissions by 2040. That figure was proposed by the government’s
official adviser, the Climate Change Committee, which said in May that the UK’s
infrastructure was “built for a climate that no longer exists” and needed
urgent improvement to protect people from the climate crisis.
Many
schools have closed and rail journeys have been cancelled during the UK
heatwave this week, which has been made even more dangerous and uncomfortable
by high humidity. The National Education Union has urged the government to set
out a timetable for equipping schools with air conditioning, which is currently
rolled out unequally across the UK.
On
Thursday South East Water implemented a hosepipe ban in Kent, affecting
approximately 850,000 customers. Other areas serviced by the water company –
Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire – are also all on red alert warnings, with
customers being asked to minimise usage as much as they can as demand increases
with the rising temperatures.
The
London ambulance service responded to a record 642 Category 1 calls on
Wednesday and on Thursday Hampshire police were still searching for a
15-year-old boy who went missing while swimming in a lake the previous day.
Sadiq
Khan, the mayor of London, launched the city’s first heat plan on Thursday.
“Extreme temperatures are no longer a future threat, they are a present
danger,” he said. The plan includes retrofitting homes at the highest risk of
overheating, more tree cover, and safe access to water for paddling and
swimming. A 2025 study found the proportion of UK homes reporting overheating
in summer quadrupled to 80% in a decade.
Measurements
taken by Greenpeace found pavements, rail platforms, building sites and other
places across London reached surface temperatures of 50C to 60C on Wednesday.
The black rubber floor of a playground in Islington was recorded at 53C at 5pm.
“This
record-smashing heatwave has turned London into a sticky, sizzling cauldron,”
said Mel Evans, Greenpeace UK’s head of climate. “This isn’t just weather, it’s
a public health emergency driven by fossil fuel giants. These abnormal
temperatures are stretching homes, schools, transport and our own health to
breaking point.”
Additional
reporting Farryn Stock
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