More than 62,000 Europeans died last summer due to heatwaves

Can you die from heat? Scientists say yes, and it is surprisingly common in the age of climate change. A study published this week in Nature Medicine shows that between June 1 and September 30, 2024, heatwaves in Europe caused the death of more than 62,000 people.

Deadly hot summer of 2024

According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the summer of 2024 in the Northern Hemisphere was the hottest on record – even the heatwaves recorded this year on the Iberian Peninsula did not break last year’s records. Summer temperature anomalies reached 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average, confirming the clear trend of ongoing climate warming. Thermometers showed 40°C in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Portugal, with Spain recording over 45°C.

A team of researchers from the Barcelona-based Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) set out to investigate how higher temperatures affected mortality in Europe. To do so, they collected meteorological data from 654 regions across 32 countries and compared them with epidemiological models that accounted for causes of death. The analysis revealed that last year’s heatwaves killed 62,775 people—23 percent more than the year before.

Heatwaves especially dangerous for aging societies

ISGlobal researchers analyzed data from 2022–2024 and estimated the total number of deaths related to high temperatures at 181,000. That is more than the population of the city of Gliwice!

Last year’s heatwaves proved especially severe in Italy, where 19,000 people died over the four summer months. Researchers point to the unfavorable demographic structure in cities such as Rome and Palermo. In Spain, high temperatures were linked to 6,700 deaths, while Germany ranked third with 6,300. In Poland, heat directly caused about 1,800 deaths. Per 1 million inhabitants, Greece recorded the highest toll – 574 deaths.

In reality, deaths caused by heatwaves may be even more frequent. Chris Hocknell from the London-based consulting firm Eight Versa admitted in an interview with Euronews that in many cases death certificates only list complications of long-term diseases, without acknowledging the impact of high temperatures. Sometimes it is difficult to clearly determine whether heat stress was the direct cause of death. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that hot days fill European hospitals, with the elderly suffering the most.

How to protect society from high temperatures?

The Barcelona scientists’ goal was not only to assess the scale of the problem but also to develop prevention methods. The situation will keep repeating itself – preliminary analyses from this summer already suggest that at least several thousand people in Europe died due to heat. In just six days at the end of July, high temperatures in the Balkans claimed 950 lives.

ISGlobal researchers therefore also focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the interactive tool Forecaster.Health, which combines weather forecasts with epidemiological models and prepares daily risk reports for specific regions, demographic groups, and disease groups. According to them, most threats can be identified up to a week in advance, giving public authorities enough time to warn the most vulnerable citizens and take preventive measures, such as organizing cooling centers in cities.

Lead author Joan Ballester Claramunt from the European Research Council adds that in southern Europe, the early warning system proved reliable even after the seven-day forecast period. Considering that this is the area with the highest heat-related mortality on the continent, this represents a missed opportunity to save lives among the most vulnerable populations, Ballester said.

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main photo credit: Giuseppe Tumbiolo/Unsplash