France Records 7,919 Excess Deaths During Record Summer Heatwaves
The toll is based on death certificates and could rise as final summer data arrives, with people 75 and older hit hardest, officials said.
- On Sept 16, France's public health authority reported nearly 8,000 excess deaths since late May, citing a provisional assessment based on death certificates issued during the summer's continuous heatwaves.
- Guillaume Boulanger, head of the living and working environments unit at France's public health authority, told AFP the summer was 'completely unprecedented' with almost continuous heatwave episodes.
- Data shows 5,764 deaths during the deadliest June 17–July 2 episode, followed by 1,243 deaths from July 3–20 and 817 deaths from July 27–August 20, with 95 recorded during an earlier May spike.
- French health authorities noted that People aged 75 and older represented the bulk of excess mortality, hit hardest by record temperatures particularly during mid-August peaks.
- Europe has experienced more extreme warming than any other continent this year, with Climate change increasing the likelihood of intense, prolonged heatwave episodes across the region.
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'My home wasn't safe anymore': lessons from France's hottest summer yet
It was France's most severe heatwave on record: almost 8,000 excess deaths, some 120,000 hectares of scorched land, livestock and crops lost, birds falling silent in blackened forests. And for Juliette Decq, a climate consultant and mother of two, it was also the summer her home stopped feeling safe.
However, this assessment is bound to increase as the figures published by Public Health France on Wednesday have yet to be consolidated, and it does not take into account the entire summer.
Rough weather strikes Spain and France, with floods causing death and disruption of transport in Spain, while France recorded an additional 8,000 deaths from heat waves during the summer of 2026.
The French Public Health Authority announced that successive heat waves in France during the summer of 2026 caused an additional 8,000 deaths, in one of the hottest summers in the country since 1900.
In France, 7,919 excess deaths were recorded during extremely hot periods, with most cases recorded at the beginning of the summer.
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