Scorching conditions are testing the region's electricity system
Temperatures in Vienna reached 41°C on Tuesday as hot air became trapped over Central Europe by a new ‘heat dome’.
Heat domes have become a defining feature of Europe’s summer in 2026,, with these atmospheric phenomena trapping hot air, supercharging temperatures in a region over several days while disrupting overnight cooling. This time, thermometers from Paris to Budapest climbed above 40°C.
Vienna on Tuesday broke its all-time temperature record, according to Austria’s meteorological institute, GeoSphere Austria.
The high temperatures in the region broadly spanning the former Habsburg Empire are particularly concerning because Hungary’s electricity grid is already in an early crisis mode following a near-total shutdown of the country’s only nuclear power plant, which normally generates around half of the country’s electricity.
