France is enduring a gruelling heatwave with temperatures soaring above 40C.
The national weather service, Meteo France, said that most of the country is entering what is described as a “plateau” of unrelenting heatwave conditions that is not forecast to start easing before Friday at the earliest.
Meteo France called the heatwave exceptionally intense, saying it was “similar to the August 2003 heatwave, but with a still uncertain duration”.
France introduced a heat watch warning system after that heatwave, when the highest temperatures in more than half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Human-caused climate change is tied to increasing extreme weather, and UN climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records.
Multiple towns in western and central France experienced their hottest night ever, Meteo France said on Monday.
Paris baked through its hottest June night, not getting below 24.2C. The French capital broke another June record with 37.7C recorded on Monday afternoon.
The weather service warned of even hotter nights: “This will continue through the end of the week, with heat levels never before recorded across more than three-quarters of the country on Wednesday and Thursday.”
The heatwave worsened air quality in Paris as it causes the formation of ozone that traps pollution. The air quality monitoring agency in the Paris region said pollutants were likely to exceed the recommended threshold.
In a country without widespread air-conditioning, people tried to adapt. Education minister Edouard Geffray said 1,352 schools were closed on Monday due to the heat, while several thousand adjusted their schedules, with students released earlier and classes relocated in air-conditioned rooms.
A growing swathe of France, spreading on Monday to more than half its regions, was under a “red alert” for heat, with areas forecast to suffer highs past 40C and nights not dropping below 20C.
Broadcasts on the Paris transport network urged commuters to hydrate. Medical specialists took to the airwaves to warn of the potentially deadly cocktail of drinking alcohol in extreme heat. Authorities cracked down on alcohol consumption in public.
Multiple drownings were reported as people sought relief in rivers, despite warnings about currents and other dangers.
Two children, aged two and four, died on Monday after being found unconscious in their family’s car in the southern town of Carpentras, according to a statement from the public prosecutor.
According to initial findings, they had locked themselves inside the vehicle. An investigation was opened under the offence of involuntary manslaughter. Government messages warned parents not to leave children unattended in cars.
Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of the fatalities were preventable, the World Health Organisation’s Europe office said this month.
The EU monitoring agency found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.
Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in south-eastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.
