“Worst ever” – 50,000 died in the heat

 

TT

Published 06:59 | Updated 07:09

 

Tourists shield themselves from the sun outside the Colosseum in Rome during the hot summer of 2026. Photo: Alessandra Tarantino/AP/TT

The extreme heat of the summer is believed to have claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people in European urban areas, according to new research.

Two-thirds of these deaths are thought to be attributable to climate change.

Researchers from Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine examined 854 urban areas across thirty countries—EU member states, as well as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland.

Using temperature data and models based on historical correlations between heat and mortality, they estimated the expected excess mortality resulting from heat in each area during the summers of 2000–2026. The findings align with official mortality statistics.

According to the researchers—who compared actual temperatures with those that would have been expected in the absence of greenhouse gas emissions—two-thirds of the deaths are due to climate change.

Clair Barnes, a researcher specializing in extreme weather and climate change at Imperial College London, describes the heat-related mortality this summer as the worst on record.

“These figures serve as a stark reminder that our warmer and more extreme summers are having an increasingly serious impact on public health,” she states in a press release.