Heatwaves exacerbated by climate change are becoming increasingly common and lethal
Summers are becoming deadlier as temperatures go up and tropical diseases threaten populations that are far from ready for the new normal, European Commission officials have warned in Brussels.
The latest heatwave in Western Europe has already killed at least 1,000 people each in France and Spain, reflecting in part a failure to adapt to life on a continent that is rapidly heating up. EU advisers estimate that extreme heat killed 24,000 people in the summer of 2025.
The headline figures point to a change that may be underway: winters have historically been significantly more deadly than summers, typically seeing nine times as many excess deaths, around 360,000, compared with around 43,000 during summer each year.
Climate change could flip the paradigm on its head. European Commission researchers venture the summer excess death count is set to more than double by the end of the century.
