Seven dead as record-breaking May heat grips western Europe

Seven people have died in France during an extreme early-summer heat event affecting large parts of western Europe, as both France and the United Kingdom recorded unprecedented temperatures for May, with further rises forecast.

A French government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, confirmed the fatalities in an interview with TF1 television, as per The Guardian.

“What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat,” she said, adding that five of the deaths were by drowning.

According to Météo France, the country’s national weather agency, the highest temperature recorded on Monday reached 37.1 °C near Hossegor in the south-western department of Les Landes. The agency warned that temperatures across western France could exceed 36C on Tuesday.

Météo France also stated that Monday was “the hottest day measured for the month of May since records began.” The national average temperature, calculated from 30 monitoring stations, reached 24.4 °C, surpassing the previous record of 23.7 °C set in 1944.

The United Kingdom also registered record-breaking heat. The Met Office reported that Monday was the hottest May day on record, with temperatures reaching 34.8 °C at Kew Gardens in south-west London. The agency described the figure as “exceptional in the UK even in mid-summer, let alone May”.

In Spain, the state weather service Aemet said widespread temperatures of 36C to 38C were expected to persist in the Guadiana, Guadalquivir, and Ebro valleys, possibly until Friday. It added that “in some of those areas, temperatures could reach 40 °C”.

Authorities in Italy’s Lazio region, which includes Rome, introduced restrictions on outdoor work involving “prolonged exposure in the sun.” The measures apply to sectors such as agriculture, construction, and deliveries, and prohibit such work between 12:30 pm and 4 pm.

In France, eight of the country’s 96 administrative departments have been placed under an orange high-temperature alert, the second-highest warning level, urging residents to “be vigilant and take precautions.” An additional 20 departments are under a yellow-level warning.

This marks the first time France’s national heat warning system has been activated in May since its introduction in 2004.

Climate scientist Christophe Cassou described the event as highly unusual.

“This is an unprecedented event with a one in 1,000 chance of happening at this time of year in the climate of 1979 to 2025,” he told Le Monde. “It would have been virtually impossible in the pre-industrial era.”

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called a meeting of key ministers on Thursday to review government preparedness for heatwaves, after more than 350 weather stations across the country recorded new monthly temperature highs on Monday.

Forecasters warned that additional records could be broken in France, Spain, and the UK on Tuesday, with temperatures exceeding seasonal norms by 12 °C to 13 °C. Météo France described the ongoing conditions as a “premature, remarkable and long” heat episode expected to last several more days.

The agency attributed the extreme temperatures to a heat dome phenomenon, in which hot air from Morocco is trapped under a high-pressure system. It added that such events are likely to “occur more and more often, earlier and earlier, and to be more and more intense”.

By Tamilla Hasanova