'Historic': What we know about the European heatwave

Europe is assessing the impact of a powerful late June heatwave, which experts believe ranks among the worst ever recorded, potentially rivaling the significant 2003 episode. Temperature records fell across the continent as hundreds of millions endured extreme heat, leading to school closures and transport disruptions. A heat dome originating from North Africa trapped hot air over the Iberian Peninsula before moving across Europe. As temperatures begin to rise again, the continent grapples with the consequences of this early summer event. Comparisons to the August 2003 heatwave, which caused tens of thousands of excess deaths, were immediate. While Alvaro Silva of the World Meteorological Organization noted the recent event was not as prolonged as 2003, he highlighted the unprecedented number of temperature records broken, particularly for June. France's weather service stated the 14-day heatwave was more intense than the 2003 event, which claimed 15,000 lives there, despite being shorter. Meteo France recorded over 40C temperatures 114 times between June 17 and 29, surpassing the 87 instances recorded in August 2003. The UK Met Office described the recent heatwave as one of the most significant in decades, notable for its sustained heat, high humidity, and warm nights. World Weather Attribution, a network of climate scientists, labeled the heatwave the most severe ever recorded based on average peak temperatures. They asserted that such an event would have been virtually impossible without the influence of climate change, estimating a similar 2003 event would have been about 2C cooler. Germany's weather service called the heatwave 'historic,' noting it was the longest and most intense ever recorded so early in the summer for the country and many other parts of Europe. In the Netherlands, it ranked as the sixth most severe on record.

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But we got many temperature records during this heatwave and the most impressive thing, we were still in June. So this is a big difference.