France recorded 5,700 more deaths than usual during its historic June heatwave

PARIS — France recorded around 5,700 more deaths than usual during the record-breaking heatwave that gripped the country in June, according to the national public health agency, underscoring the deadly toll of an increasingly extreme European summer.

Santé publique France said the excess mortality, the number of deaths above what would normally be expected for the period, reached roughly 5,700 during the June heat episodes. Not all of those deaths were caused directly by the heat, as excess-mortality counts capture all additional deaths recorded during a period; separate scientific analyses have attributed more than 2,700 deaths specifically to the extreme temperatures.

In an earlier assessment, the agency had reported a 29.1 percent rise in mortality, about 2,025 additional deaths, in the week of 22-28 June alone, warning at the time that the figure was “probably an underestimate.” Deaths rose especially sharply in the Paris region, where they jumped by around 62 percent that week.

June 2026 was among the hottest on record in France. Daily high temperatures averaged across the country reached 36.9°C, beating the previous June record, set only in 2022, by 2.4°C. The country endured more than one heat episode during the month, with authorities placing large parts of France under heat alerts.

As in previous heatwaves, the elderly were the most vulnerable, along with people with chronic illnesses. The government activated its heat-health warning system, which includes public advice to stay hydrated and out of the sun, and checks on at-risk residents.

Scientists say the intensity of the June heat outpaced climate-model projections, with maximum temperatures more in line with what had been expected for the 2070s. They link the growing frequency and severity of such heatwaves to human-caused climate change, and warn that summers like this one will become more common without deeper cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions.

France has been acutely sensitive to heat mortality since 2003, when a catastrophic heatwave killed an estimated 15,000 people and prompted the creation of the national alert system that officials credit with sharply reducing deaths in later years.