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France recorded more than 1,000 excess deaths over five consecutive days as a historic heat wave gripped western Europe last week, with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius in multiple regions and overwhelming emergency rooms and mortuary services across the country, health officials said Tuesday. The death toll, released by the French public health authority Santé Publique France, represented a 25 percent increase above the seasonal norm and came as meteorologists warned that the extreme heat was part of a longer-term warming pattern linked to climate change.
The heat wave, which began in Iberia before spreading northward into France, placed 78 of France’s 96 mainland departments on red alert — the highest level of the national heat warning system. Paris recorded a peak temperature of 42.6 degrees on Thursday, shattering the city’s previous June record by more than three degrees. Nighttime temperatures in many cities failed to fall below 25 degrees, denying populations the relief that normally follows daytime peaks.
Emergency Measures and Hospital Overcrowding
The French government activated its national emergency heat plan for the third time since 2021, opening cooling centers in major cities, restricting outdoor work and cancelling school activities in the worst-affected zones. Prime Minister François Bayrou addressed the nation from the Élysée Palace on Wednesday, urging all French citizens to check on vulnerable neighbors, remain hydrated and avoid unnecessary exertion during afternoon hours.
Hospital emergency departments in Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and Bordeaux reported occupancy rates above 120 percent during the peak period, with some facilities diverting non-critical cases to field tents erected outside their main buildings. The head of the French hospital federation told BFMTV that staff absences due to heat illness had further strained an already under-resourced system. “Our teams are exhausted, and the heat is adding a level of pressure we have not faced in a standard summer surge,” said the federation president, whose name could not be published at her request due to institutional policy.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the government had deployed 8,000 additional police and firefighters to conduct welfare checks on elderly and disabled residents in high-rise buildings, many of which lack air conditioning. Civil protection units carried out more than 14,000 such checks over the course of the week, locating 23 individuals in serious distress who required hospital admission.
“We know from past heat events that the people most at risk are those who live alone, the elderly and those with pre-existing chronic conditions,” said Dr. Claire Mたとえ, a public health specialist at Paris Descartes University who advises the government on climate-related health planning. “The speed of this heat wave gave us very little time to reach everyone we needed to reach.”
Mortality Data and Delayed Response Criticism
Santé Publique France’s provisional mortality report, published Tuesday, documented 1,047 excess deaths above the expected baseline between June 24 and June 28. The agency noted that the true figure could rise as death certificates from rural areas continue to be processed. The hardest-hit age group was those over 75, accounting for 71 percent of the excess deaths.
The figures drew sharp criticism from opposition politicians and public health experts who argued that the government’s response came too slowly despite days of advance warning from meteorological services. Former Health Minister Aurélien Prtouché told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the executive had failed to pre-position cooling equipment in nursing homes and social housing complexes as its own heat plan prescribes. “The protocol exists on paper. It was not executed,” he said. “People died who did not need to die.”
The government rejected the characterization. Health Minister Yvonne Comte Loire said at a press briefing that France’s heat plan had been activated earlier and more comprehensively than in previous events, and that the mortality rate per capita was lower than in the catastrophic 2003 heat wave that killed nearly 15,000 people. “We are in a process of continuous improvement,” Comte Loire said. “The numbers are serious, but they reflect a heat event of extraordinary intensity, not a failure of response.”
Climate scientists who study the relationship between heat and mortality said the French episode fit a pattern of increasingly frequent and deadly heat events across Europe that they have documented over the past decade. A study published in Nature Climate Change in April found that heat-related mortality in southern Europe has increased by 68 percent since 2000, a figure that researchers project will triple by 2040 under current emissions trajectories.
European Neighbors and Long-Term Adaptation
Spain and Italy experienced similar, and in some areas more severe, conditions during the same period. Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute reported 890 excess deaths over the same five-day window. Italy’s Department of Civil Protection logged temperatures above 45 degrees in Sicily and Sardinia, prompting emergency declarations in five regions.
The European Commission said it was in contact with the governments of all three countries and stood ready to activate the EU Civil Protection Mechanism if requested. A commission spokesperson noted that the EU’s new European Climate Change and Health Observatory, launched in May, had provided early risk assessments to member states in the days before the heat wave peaked.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that the government would launch a comprehensive review of national heat infrastructure, with particular attention to the thermal retrofitting of public buildings and the installation of passive cooling systems in social housing. The review, to be led by the national public health council, is expected to deliver recommendations before the next summer season. “We cannot keep responding to these events as if they are exceptional,” Macron said during a visit to a Paris cooling center. “They are becoming the rule.”
“We cannot keep responding to these events as if they are exceptional,” Macron said during a visit to a Paris cooling center. “They are becoming the rule.” The heat wave is expected to ease by the weekend as a cold front moves in from the Atlantic, according to Météo France.