Europe’s Killer Heat This Summer Claims 50,000 Lives

EUROPE – Blistering record heat in Europe this summer helped kill more than 50,000 people, with nearly two-thirds of that death toll blamed on human-caused climate change.

Researchers modeled heat-related deaths for different age groups in 854 European cities during repeated heat waves in June, July and August and found that 50,391 people died from warmer temperatures, and of those, 32,619 died because of the extra heat caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas.

That’s 71% higher than the previous deadliest summer, which was in 2022.

And this summer’s death figures are underestimates because they don’t count a deadly heat wave in May and they only look at deaths in those 854 cities, which are about 40% of Europe’s population.