Summer 2026 becomes Austria’s hottest since records began

Austria has recorded its hottest summer since detailed measurements began in 1858, with the season producing a national temperature record of 41.2 degrees Celsius.

Geosphere Austria confirmed that summer 2026 brought a series of records. The 10 hottest summers in Austria have all occurred in the 21st century, according to the report.

The heat was particularly difficult for people in cities. The season saw unusually high daily maximum and minimum temperatures, long heatwaves, repeated hot days, very hot days and tropical nights. The high mountains also experienced an unusually low number of frost days.

Alexander Orlik, a climate scientist at Geosphere Austria, said the range of records made the season difficult to describe. “Extraordinary, extreme or unprecedented” were among the terms that could be applied to the maximum and minimum temperatures, the duration of the heatwaves and the number of hot days and tropical nights, he said.

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Extraordinary, extreme or unprecedented were the maxima of the daily high and low temperatures, the length of the heatwaves, the sequence of hot days, the number of hot days, very hot days and tropical nights, as well as the low number of frost days in the high mountains.