{"id":1796,"date":"2026-07-03T07:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=1796"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:34:31","slug":"are-europes-extreme-summers-the-new-normal-what-the-science-says-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=1796","title":{"rendered":"Are Europe\u2019s extreme summers the new normal? What the science says | Weather"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>5 Minute, 9 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Temperatures in Europe hit a new high<\/a> this summer, with hotter early-summer heatwaves triggering illness, deaths and the collapse of infrastructure across the continent.<\/p>\n

Transport buckled on Sunday as temperatures hit 40C (104F) across Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. In France, days averaging 29.8C (85.6F) \u2013 spiking to 44C (111.2F) in one town \u2013 gave way to storms, leaving an estimated 1,000 excess deaths behind.<\/p>\n

Scenes like this may well be the new normal.<\/p>\n

Last summer\u2019s heatwave alone caused an estimated 2,300 climate-related deaths in 12 European countries, WWA says.<\/p>\n

A study by World Weather Attribution (WWA)<\/a> has found that intense heat on this level is now tens to hundreds of times more likely than it was in 2003, and was unheard of 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeat-related mortality is likely to remain a feature of Europe\u2019s warming climate,\u201d warns Dr Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization (WHO)\u2019s regional director for Europe. Deaths have already risen by an average of 52 per million people annually since the 1990s, he told Al Jazeera \u2013 a trend he says shows little sign of reversing on its own.<\/p>\n

So what does this mean for the future? Are these temperatures the new normal, and if so, why?<\/p>\n

We asked the climate experts:<\/p>\n

Is this really the new normal?<\/h2>\n

Yes, it certainly looks that way. According to WWA<\/a>, heatwaves were generally about 3.5C cooler in June 1976, and 2C cooler even in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of it like a race where the starting line has been moved much closer to the finish,\u201d Dr Akshay Deoras of the University of Reading told Al Jazeera. Ultimately, this is down to global warming, he says.<\/p>\n

Europe has warmed at roughly twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Commission\u2019s climate change service, Copernicus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deoras says this amounts to \u201cloading the dice\u201d towards once-rare extremes.<\/p>\n