European countries are suffering from an early May heat wave. In the United Kingdom, France and Spain, temperatures this month have soared to the highest levels on record, and there have been deaths related to the heat.
According to major foreign media on the 26th (local time), temperatures in the United Kingdom topped 35 degrees that day. The previous day at London's Kew Gardens, the temperature reached 34.8 Celsius, tentatively breaking both the highest May temperature and the highest temperature for the meteorological spring (March to May). But the next day the temperature rose to 35.1 Celsius, breaking the record again in just one day.
The U.K. Met Office called this heat wave "an unprecedented phenomenon for this time of year." The previous record high was 32.8 Celsius, set in 1922 and 1944, and it had not been broken for more than 80 years.
France also set a new May temperature record the previous day. According to the French weather agency, the temperature in Bergerac rose to 34.7 degrees, and Nantes and Angers also recorded mid-30s. In 352 cities in the western region, the highest May temperatures on record were observed. The heat wave continued the following day, and in some southern areas, temperatures are expected to rise to 36–37 degrees later this week.
Heat-related casualties are also mounting. French government Spokesperson Maud Bregeon appeared on TF1 on the morning of the 26th and said that in recent days "there have been seven deaths directly or indirectly related to the heat," adding, "Five of them died in drowning accidents, and there was also a heat-related death during a sports match." Bregeon said, "Heat waves are no longer an exceptional phenomenon," and added, "We need to adjust how the country is run accordingly and prepare for various situations."
Other European countries are also reeling from the early heat wave. In Ireland, the May temperature record rose by more than 1 degree over the previous mark, and unusually high spring temperatures are continuing in Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In southwestern Spain, temperatures are forecast to reach 40 degrees in the coming days.
The "heat dome" phenomenon is being cited as the cause of this heat wave. As hot air from North Africa gets trapped under a strong high-pressure system over Western Europe, the heat cannot escape, as if a lid were placed on top, baking the entire region. Heat domes usually appear in mid-summer, but this year they emerged unusually as early as May.
CNN said of the heat dome that it "can last from several days to weeks, and its frequency and intensity are increasing due to climate change driven by human activity."
As climate change accelerates, Europe's heat waves are expected to worsen. Greenhouse gases emitted during the combustion of fossil fuels accumulate in the atmosphere, acting like a blanket around the planet and pushing up the global average temperature. In Europe, more than 62,000 people lost their lives to heat-related causes during 2024, recorded as the hottest year in Earth's history.
Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the U.K. Met Office and a professor at the University of Exeter, said, "When a heat wave occurs, the impacts of climate change become more severe, because the heat wave happens on top of an already warmed climate," adding, "It is surprising that recent temperature records are turning out to be more extreme and appearing faster than we expected."
Peter Son, director of the Icarus Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University in Ireland, told CNN, "It is clear that heat waves like this have become more likely due to climate change and have also grown in intensity," adding, "Even so, the temperature records being broken one after another in the U.K. and France are shockingly hard to believe."