Here are the latest developments in Europe’s heatwave. Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels, and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense. Munich Pride to go aheadOrganisers of the Pride March in the German city of Munich said it would go head on the weekend despite the heat. Paris Pride was postponed after the police said they would close it down to ease the burden on health services.
Romania red warningRomania’s weather agency has issued a red heatwave warning, to start on Monday and run to Wednesday, covering almost the whole country. Paris emergency calls almost doubleThe French capital’s hospital authority said emergency calls in the capital had risen by 80 percent in the past week, compared with the same week last year. France heat to breakMeteo-France said it expected all remaining red alerts to be lifted by Sunday night.
Swiss nuclear plant stops operationsThe nuclear reactors at Europe’s oldest nuclear plant Beznau were shut down Friday, its Swiss operator Axpo said.”The temperature of the Aare River reached 25C again yesterday and today. Sufficient cooling is not in sight,” Axpo said on its website, adding that as a consequence, the plant “has temporarily shut down both reactors”. Toddler dies in FranceA toddler died in hospital after being found in a hot car during a severe heatwave in the French city of Marseille, health services said, in the latest such death nationwide this week.
German, Swiss, UK recordsGermany saw its highest temperature ever recorded at 41.3C in the western city of Saarbruecken. The UK and Switzerland, meanwhile, clocked their highest ever June temperatures with 37.3C in an English village called Santon Downham and 38.8C in the Swiss city of Basel. Records ‘shattered’The heatwave has “shattered numerous temperature records” and is having “major impacts on human health, on ecosystems, on agriculture, on labour productivity,” the spokeswoman for the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, Clare Nullis, told a news conference.
Eurostar evacuationsHundreds of passengers were evacuated from two Eurostar trains in Belgium after breakdowns left them without air conditioning in the midst of a sweltering heatwave, the country’s rail agency said. Front heads for BalkansThe heatwave moving from Western Europe was set to bring very high temperatures to the Balkans. forecasters said. Temperatures of up to 39 degrees were forecast in parts of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro.
Dutch festival cancelledOrganisers have cancelled the four-day techno music festival Defqon.1 in Biddinghuizen in the central Netherlands, scheduled to start on Thursday, its director Sander Bijlstra told the ANP news agency. The Lago Lago electronic music festival in Stroombroek meanwhile said it would restrict alcohol sales. Poland fire warningHeat combined with record-low May rainfall have significantly increased the risk of fires in forests and national parks in Poland, officials warned.
A spokesman for Poland’s long-distance rail operator, PKP Intercity, told AFP the heatwave was expected to affect traffic, with overhead power lines sagging and rails deforming. Battle re-enactment scrappedOrganisers in Belgium said they had cancelled this weekend’s reenactment of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo because of the heatwave.burs-jxb/cw
Sat, 27 Jun 2026 08:18:46 GMT