France heatwave puts 54 departments on red alert as temperatures top 40C

Paris,UPDATED: Jun 23, 2026 13:14 IST

Millions of people across France woke up drenched in sweat on Tuesday after another night of intense heat, with most of the country facing extreme and exceptional temperatures. The national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments under a red heat wave alert and said temperatures would remain exceptionally high through the day and night.

The heat has disrupted daily life in a country without widespread air-conditioning, affecting schools, trains and sporting events. Around 20 drowning deaths have also been reported since the weekend, as France deals with a heat wave that is both severe and unusually early in the summer.

"Sunshine continues to dominate across France, maintaining oppressive and exhausting heat throughout the country," Meteo France said. It added that the extreme conditions were expected to continue at least until the end of the week, with daytime temperatures crossing 40 degrees Celsius in many towns.

"Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year," Meteo France said. The weather service described the heat wave as exceptionally intense and said it had arrived very early in the summer, though its duration remained uncertain.

The current spell has already drawn comparisons with the August 2003 heat wave, when the highest temperatures in more than half a century were linked to an estimated 15,000 deaths in France. Many of those who died were elderly people living in flats and retirement homes without air-conditioning. France introduced a heat watch warning system after that disaster.

Scientists have linked human-caused climate change to more frequent and more intense extreme weather. The UN climate agency has projected that the next five years are likely to break more heat records. According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s.

The World Health Organisation's Europe office said earlier this month that more than 200,000 people across Europe had died from heat-related causes over the last four years, and that most of those deaths were preventable. It warned that above-average temperatures can lead to heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.

The EU monitoring agency also found that 2024 was the hottest year on record both in Europe and globally, and that the continent saw its second-highest number of heat stress days. Scientists have warned that climate change is worsening the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in south-eastern Europe, increasing the risk to health and raising the threat of wildfires.

France is now facing another prolonged spell of dangerous heat, with weather warnings in place, public services under strain and the wider risks of extreme temperatures once again in focus across Europe.

With PTI Inputs

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