A person stands near a fountain in a park as the heat wave grips Europe, in Brussels, Belgium on Jun 18, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman)
27 Jun 2026 11:12AM
(Updated: 28 Jun 2026 05:18AM)
BERLIN/MILAN/COPENHAGEN: From Scandinavia to the Alps, Europeans endured sweltering conditions on Saturday (Jun 27) as a heatwave linked to dozens of deaths spread eastwards, with temperatures in some areas soaring above 40 degrees Celsius.Preliminary all-time temperature records were set on Saturday in Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic, and a new mark for the month of June in Switzerland. Similar records have been broken earlier this week in France and Britain.Scientists said the heatwave would have been virtually impossible without man-made climate change, which has made this week's night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been even two decades ago."This heat isn't pleasant summer weather. It's a health crisis," Katrin Goering-Eckardt, a German federal lawmaker and former leader of the Green Party, said on X.
Such was the heat in Berlin, where temperatures climbed to 39°C on Saturday, that police deployed two water cannons across the city to spray mist onto people looking for relief.Saturday's new preliminary German record of 41.5°C in Möckern-Drewitz in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt topped a record set just the day before of 41.3°C near Saarbruecken on the French border, Germany's Meteorological Service said.The Danish Meteorological Institute meanwhile reported a 37°C reading north of the city of Aarhus on Saturday, the highest on record since measurements began in 1874.
