Much of Europe is bracing for yet another scorching heatwave, adding to a summer already marked by record-breaking temperatures, worsening drought, and major wildfires. Parts of Britain and France face extreme heat warnings with forecasts in the mid-30s Celsius, while Greece reported a second wildfire near Athens this week, dispatching hundreds of firefighters. More than 10,000 hectares of pine forest have already burned northwest of the Greek capital. Heat and drought are also driving European rivers to record lows: Germany's Rhine could become unnavigable, while Hungary came close to a forced shutdown of a nuclear plant overnight as Danube water levels dropped critically low. Nearly 120 million Europeans experienced their hottest July on record, according to Copernicus climate data, and nearly three-quarters of England is officially in drought, with more than 27 million people under water-use restrictions. Disclosure: This video contains stock footage and content created or enhanced using AI-assisted tools. ai-generated WooGlobe Ref : WGA947631
GENEVA — Periods of extreme heat are becoming more frequent, intense and longer-lasting as climate change warms the planet, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday, noting changes since the famously hot European summer of 1976.
Parts of Europe are enduring their fifth heat wave of a summer marked by drought, wildfires and record-breaking temperatures.
"Extreme heat is becoming more frequent, more intense, it's lasting longer, and covering much wider areas than in the cooler climates of the past," John Kennedy, the World Meteorological Organization's head of climate information, told a news briefing in Geneva.
Kennedy said the current pattern of heat across Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent, reflected the interaction between a persistent pattern of high-pressure systems across the Northern Hemisphere and a warmer climate.
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The high-pressure systems trap warm air, reduce cloud cover and block cooler air from moving in, allowing heat to build over large regions for days or weeks.
El Niño, the naturally occurring climate pattern that typically boosts global temperatures, isn’t contributing to Europe's heat this year because conditions in the tropical Pacific are currently neutral, he added.
Boats sit stranded in mud as low water exposes the bottom of a side arm of the Danube river during a heatwave near Orth an der Donau, Austria, August 6, 2026. REUTERS/Christian Bruna
Changes over five decades
Kennedy noted that June 1976 featured a broadly similar pattern of high and low pressure systems to those seen this year, but said the outcomes were very different because of decades of global warming.
"The picture for 1976 is one of a few isolated areas above average temperatures in a much cooler world," he said, whereas today "the picture is reversed" with much of the globe experiencing above-average temperatures and only a few isolated cooler regions.
Exceptionally warm seas and parched soils amplify temperatures across Europe, Kennedy said.
Marine heat waves in the Mediterranean Sea and waters west of Europe are fueling hotter conditions on land by providing additional background warmth for persistent high-pressure systems, he added.
Dry ground is also intensifying the heat because soils warm more quickly once moisture is depleted.
"Lots of these factors are coming together to give us the record heat that we're seeing this year," Kennedy stated.
Heat-damaged tomatoes with blossom-end rot are seen Sunday in the greenhouse of organic vegetable farmers Barbara Stemberger and Fritz Hummer in Leonding, Austria.
People enjoy at the beach during a heat wave Aug. 4 in Herceg Novi, Montenegro.
