French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is to hold a crisis meeting on Tuesday, after Météo France reported that the country's average temperature had broken a June record. Elsewhere in Europe, several countries are also struggling with the heatwave, which has led to a number of deaths and disruption to public services.
The latest heatwave has heightened fears about the impact of climate change-driven extreme weather on vulnerable people, forcing the cancellation of outdoor events, causing transport disruption and closing schools. It comes just a month after a previous spell of unseasonably high temperatures scorched western Europe, with scientists warning that increasingly frequent, prolonged and intense periods of extreme heat are a clear indicator of human-driven global warming. France broke a June temperature record as more than 1,350 schools were forced to close. Average daytime and night-time temperatures reached 29.2C on Monday, surpassing the previous high set on 30 June 2025, according to provisional Météo France data, while the central village of Châteaumeillant recorded a sweltering 43.3C. France's scorching weekend heat leads to elderly deaths and spate of drownings It expanded its heatwave red alert to 54 of the country's 96 mainland departments for Tuesday, affecting around 39 million people, according to an estimate by French news agency AFP. French authorities blamed the extreme weather for the deaths of two children, aged two and four, found on Monday in their family car in a residential parking lot in the southern town of Carpentras. Disruption in France Forty people have drowned in France since temperatures soared last Thursday, Lecornu said on Tuesday, as he gathered ministers for a special meeting. He referred to a "sad scourge of drownings," which "primarily affects young people." They are the "first victims of the crisis we are experiencing," he added. French Sports and Youth Minister Marina Ferrari told the France Inter broadcaster Tuesday that around 20 people alone had drowned since the beginning of the weekend, up from an intitial toll of 13. She urged swimmers flocking to the country's waters in a bid to beat the heat to respect safety rules. The day before, three elderly people died in their residence in Gironde in the southwest as a result of the high temperatures.
