France records hottest summer ever in 2026 amid Europe-wide extreme heat

France has recorded its hottest summer ever in 2026, joining Belgium, Britain and Ireland as temperatures soar in Europe, the globe’s fastest-warming continent.

“We have just lived through the hottest summer ever recorded since measurements began in 1900,” French Environment Minister Monique Barbut said on Thursday at a presentation of the summer climate report.

France has endured multiple severe heatwaves this year, including one in late June that set a new intensity record.

The country saw an unprecedented 2,025 excess deaths recorded during the heatwave, with a particular increase in deaths among people aged over 45, said French Health Minister Stephanie Rist.

Another heatwave stretched from late July into August, matching a 23-day record previously set in 1983.

During this time, France was hit by several major wildfires, even in normally cooler and wetter regions.

According to the national weather agency Meteo France, the summer was marked by very low rainfall, with a deficit of nearly 40 percent, making it the second driest since records began.

Meteo France said the summer of 2026 recorded an average temperature of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 3.6C (6.5F) above the normal average.

“The summer of 2026 will go down in history,” Barbut said.

“The question we must now ask ourselves is how it will be remembered … As the first in a long series of summers that continue to break records. Or as a moment when we rose to the challenge of adaptation and mitigation,” by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, she added.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu tasked Barbut in late July with presenting new measures to speed up implementation of France’s national climate change adaptation plan.

On Thursday, she promised conclusions “by the end of September”, including a five-year funding plan.

Millions in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe experienced extreme temperatures this summer.

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.