Germany: Heatwave claims 14,000 lives

 

TT-AFP

 

Published 11.19

 

Both people and nature are suffering in the heat and drought. Picture taken during a running competition in the usually much greener Clapham Common park in London earlier in August. Photo: Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP/TT

The brutal heatwaves this summer have claimed at least 14,000 lives in Germany alone. The figure is higher than the previous grim record, from the extreme summer of 2018, the RKI agency in Berlin states.

A large majority of heat-related deaths in the RKI statistics for 2026, 9,600 people, died at the end of June, when temperatures of over 40 degrees were recorded in Germany.

For Europe, the heatwaves thus look set to cost tens of thousands of lives this summer. However, countries are counting in different ways. In France, the Public Health Authority reported this week that there were 7,300 excess deaths so far this summer, with a peak there at the end of June. However, this is excess mortality in general, not necessarily due to the weather.

Scientists have concluded that the widespread and prolonged heat would not be possible without human-induced climate change.