A devastating eight-day heatwave that swept across Europe toward the end of June has resulted in more than 10,000 deaths, according to a report released on Sunday, July 12, by the European monitoring organization, EuroMOMO.

EuroMOMO, a collaborative project supported by the European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO), confirmed the staggering toll following their investigation into mortality rates between June 20 and June 28.

Key Findings
Vulnerable Demographics: Approximately 9,000 of the 10,000 victims were aged 65 or older.

Primary Causes: Most of the deaths were attributed to heatstroke or cardiovascular and respiratory failure directly linked to the extreme temperatures.

Regional Impact: While the report did not provide a country-by-country breakdown, it noted that a significant portion of these fatalities occurred in France and Belgium.

Dr. Lasse Vestergaard, a senior physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut and a key official at EuroMOMO, told Reuters that the extreme heat was the undeniable cause of the deaths.

"This number is truly high, and for such a short period of time at this point in the year, it is not at all normal," he stated.

Contextualizing the Mortality
Official data indicates that EU member states have been experiencing an average of 500 heat-related deaths per week over the past eight weeks.

For historical context, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) noted that the highest weekly death toll recorded in Europe in recent years occurred during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when figures surpassed 1,650 deaths in a single week between May and June 2020.

European scientists have linked this June heatwave to human-induced climate change, warning that such extreme weather events are likely to recur with increasing frequency and intensity in the coming years.
Source: Reuters