Extreme heat is melting national records across Europe, with more coming Thursday

(CNN) — The United Kingdom has broken its record for hottest June temperature with the mercury hitting 96.4 degrees Fahrenheit (35.8 Celsius) in Wiggonholt, in the south of the country, according to provisional figures from the UK Met Office. This broke the previous June record of 96.08 degrees Fahrenheit (35.6 Celsius) last set in 1976.

Punishing temperatures are scorching Europe as it swelters under a fierce heat dome, bringing dangerous conditions to swaths of the fastest-warming continent. Hundreds of records have been broken, with many more set to fall as the heat intensifies Wednesday and Thursday.

As record temperatures grip Europe, young people are dying in rivers and lakes — and experts warn it is only going to get worse.

At least 42 people have drowned in France this week as thousands headed to water to escape temperatures soaring past 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius). Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed the victims were mostly young people, calling their deaths a “tragic scourge.”

The pattern is not new. France’s public health authority, Santé publique France, recorded 1,418 drowning incidents during the summer of 2025 — a 14% rise on the year before — with deaths among teenagers ages 13 to 17 more than doubling.

Britain’s May heatwave tells a similar story. At least 19 people died in open water last month, most of them children. One study of 2,000 UK drowning deaths found the risk of drowning rises 7% for every 1.8-degree Fahrenheit (1 Celsius) increase in daily maximum temperatures.

The UK Met Office has issued exceptionally rare “Red Extreme Heat Warnings” for Wednesday and Thursday.

Currently, southern parts of the UK, including London, are feeling comparable to humidity levels in Miami, New Orleans and Houston, with dew points in London hovering at or above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 Celsius). There are even readings as high as 76 degrees Fahrenheit (24.4 Celsius).

Extremely hot temperatures edging towards or surpassing all-time records is becoming a more common occurrence as the number of hot days experienced by the UK and France is increasing, according to their national weather services.

Reams of statistics point to this. Of the 52 heatwaves recorded in France since 1947, two-thirds have happened since the beginning of the 21st century, according to Météo-France. Meanwhile in the UK, the number of days which are hotter than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) more than tripled in 2015-2024 compared to 1961-1990, according to a 2024 Met Office report.

And this June heatwave comes a month after the hottest ever May temperatures were recorded in the UK. If the hottest June temperatures are observed this week, as is likely, it will be the first time since 1911 that two consecutive months have seen record temperatures, the Met Office said.

The climate crisis, driven by humans burning fossil fuels, has made heat waves like this more intense and more likely. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, meaning it will likely endure heat like this more frequently and for longer periods of time.

Extreme temperatures could also end up taking some heat out of the already struggling European economy — both now and in the future.

Analysts at Allianz said last month that by 2030, the cumulative GDP losses could reach between 5% and 7% in the countries most exposed to rising temperatures.

A separate study by Climate Analytics, released on Wednesday, said that combined heat-and-drought events are already making Europeans poorer, reducing average household incomes by almost 3% across the continent.

The study says that if temperatures rise by 2.7°C by 2100 — a likely scenario —the average European household will see its income fall by 27%. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the Paris Agreement commitment, would restrict the loss to 7%.

Economic losses are tied to a wide range of heat impacts. Infrastructure can be damaged in extreme temperatures, for example, and agriculture and manufacturing can be disrupted because machines are calibrated to operate in specific temperatures.

Workers are also suffering.

“Less sleep and broken sleep are associated with a drop in work performance and productivity, an increase in accidents, lower school test scores … a decline in mental health, worsened cognitive function, and an increase in impulsive behaviours,” Laurence Wainwright from the University of Oxford said.

He added that test scores drop by 15% in a room of students with a temperature of 82.4 Fahrenheit (28 Celsius) compared to 64.4 Fahrenheit (18 Celsius).

The International Labour Organization estimates that a worker’s performance begins to drop once temperatures reach above 75-79 degrees Fahrenheit (24–26 Celsius) and plummet 50% at 91-93 Fahrenheit (33–34 Celsius).

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.