June heatwave killed more than 2,000 in France as Luxembourg logs hottest June on record

The heatwave that smothered western Europe in the second half of June killed more than 2,000 people in France in a single week and pushed deaths in Belgium 39 percent above normal, the first official mortality figures show — a quantified human toll for a heat episode that also gave Luxembourg its hottest June since measurements began in 1947. Forecasters now warn that extreme heat could return to the region within days.

Santé publique France, the French public-health agency, reported that deaths in the week of 22 to 28 June rose 29.1 percent compared with the previous week, an excess of 2,025 deaths. The rise was steepest in the Île-de-France region around Paris, at 62.8 percent, and deaths recorded at home jumped 91 percent week on week. The agency cautioned that the figures are preliminary — they rest on roughly 60 percent of death certificates, those filed electronically — and the toll is expected to climb as paper records are processed.

The count remains far below the roughly 15,000 deaths attributed to France's August 2003 catastrophe, a gap officials credit in part to better preparedness in care homes. But the political fallout has been immediate: the opposition Greens filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's government, accusing it of failing to prepare the country for rising temperatures.

Belgium's 'unprecedented' spike

In Belgium, preliminary data from the federal Risk Management Group — drawing on the mortality monitoring run by the Sciensano public-health institute — recorded 1,222 excess deaths between 18 and 29 June, a 39 percent rise. Of those, 530 were people aged 85 or older, but 180 were under 65. The group described the surge, which followed seven consecutive days above 30°C and unusually warm nights, as an unprecedented occurrence of excess mortality during a heatwave, and said it produced the sharpest daily mortality spike in the country since the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Even though the estimates are provisional, they reflect the substantial impact of the heatwave," Belgian health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said, as reported by the Brussels Times.

Vandenbroucke has asked the Risk Management Group to deliver recommendations within days and tasked Belgium's National Crisis Centre with a full evaluation. Together with roughly 480 heat-related deaths reported in the Netherlands, wire-service tallies put the combined excess toll across the three countries at more than 3,700 — a figure health authorities in all three say is provisional and likely to rise.

Luxembourg's hottest June since 1947

Luxembourg has published no comparable mortality figures yet, but the meteorological verdict is already in. According to MeteoLux, the national weather service, the 38.2°C measured at the Luxembourg-Findel reference station on 26 June set a new absolute June record for the country since observations began in 1947. With a mean temperature of 19.9°C, June 2026 was also the warmest June ever recorded at Findel.

The heat was remarkable for its persistence as much as its peaks: eleven consecutive heatwave days from 18 to 28 June and six tropical nights, on which the temperature never fell below 20°C.

"The second half of June 2026 constitutes the longest heatwave ever observed during a June month in the history of Findel, since 1947," MeteoLux meteorologist Luca Mathias told Le Quotidien.

A live stress test for schools, hospitals and care homes

The episode forced Luxembourg's institutions into rapid adaptation. The government issued a red heat alert on 22 June — warning of temperatures between 35°C and 40°C, potentially higher in cities and the Moselle valley — which the CERI weather-assessment cell later extended to Sunday morning, and put hospitals and care facilities on high alert. The Health Directorate activated its heatwave plan, including hydration-assistance visits to isolated elderly residents.

The City of Luxembourg suspended afternoon classes for primary school cycles 1–4 on 24 and 26 June, while maintaining supervision and transport; the Athénée de Luxembourg ended Friday classes at 12:40pm.

Construction sites were temporarily authorised to start work at 6am instead of 7am to spare workers the worst of the heat.

Interventions by the CGDIS fire and rescue corps ran roughly 70 percent above average at mid-week, and emergency departments reported more heat-related visits, though Delano reported the hospital situation remained broadly under control.

Heat even buckled infrastructure: a track failure at Berchem disrupted two CFL rail lines, with repairs only possible during cooler night hours.

More heat on the way

The reprieve may be short. France's state forecaster Météo-France and the private service La Chaîne Météo have signalled a further major heatwave — the country's third this year — building from around 6 July and potentially lasting to mid-month, with the strongest heat signal stretching from the Iberian peninsula and France toward the Benelux and Germany. Some model scenarios show 38°C to 41°C reaching parts of the Benelux around 9 to 14 July if a blocking pattern locks in, though forecasters stress the intensity remains uncertain.

"It is entirely plausible that we will see fresh surges of scorching air moving from the Sahara toward France," La Chaîne Météo meteorologist Régis Crépét said.

For Luxembourg and its neighbours, the newly published death tolls turn that forecast from a weather story into a public-health warning: the measures improvised for June — cooler school hours, earlier construction starts, visits to the isolated elderly — may be needed again within a fortnight, this time with the cost of inaction counted in official statistics.