Europe swelters under record-breaking heat wave

New June temperature records were set in the U.K. and France this week as a deadly heat wave grips much of Europe.

Why it matters: A new World Weather Attribution analysis found human-caused climate change made this week's extreme heat "virtually impossible" 50 years ago.

The big picture: Extreme heat warnings have been issued across the continent this week, from Ireland to Slovenia.

• "The heatwave will spread over large parts of Western, Central, and Southern Europe within the next two weeks," the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in a statement.
• Spain saw new temperature highs this week as Spanish officials reported at least 212 heat-related deaths. Five heat-related deaths were recorded in Italy.
• France reported 40 drowning deaths linked to unsupervised swimming as the country set a new temperature record that was broken days later. Officials warned much of the country faced a high risk of wildfires amid a worsening drought.

By the numbers: 45% of cities analyzed across 30 European countries have "already, or are predicted to, break their highest ever heat stress levels," per a World Weather Attribution statement on its study findings.

• "The sweltering overnight temperatures keeping many people awake this week" are about 100 times more likely today than they were just 23 years ago "during the infamous 2003 European heatwave," it said. "The daytime peaks are about 10x more likely."

Zoom in: France recorded its hottest night on record Wednesday night, with an average temperature across the country of 38.5°C (101°F), per provisional data from Météo-France, the French meteorological agency.

• Wednesday also saw France's hottest day on record — beating the record set the previous day — with an average national temperature of 30°C (86°F), above previous records set in July 2019 and August 2003.
• The same day, Météo-France reported that provisional figures showed the town of Palluau in western France endured "the hottest day ever recorded" anywhere in the country, when the temperature reached 43.8°C (110.84°F).

The U.K. provisionally set a new maximum temperature record for June for the second straight day on Wednesday, with 36.7°C (98.06°F) reached at Merryfield, in the southwestern English county of Somerset, according to the Met Office.

• "This week, a number of other weather stations have also exceeded the previous record of 35.6°C which was reached on 28 June 1976 and 29 June 1957," the U.K. meteorological agency noted in a statement.

What they found: The World Weather Attribution analysis noted that previous June records had stood since the 1976 European heat wave.

• The analysis found that had this June's heat wave occurred in the climate of 1976, temperatures during the day this week would have been about 3.5°C cooler.
• The El Niño-Southern Oscillation phase had no role in driving this week's heat, researchers say.

Context: Scientists used weather observations and forecasts to compare today's warmer climate with the cooler climates of 2003 and 1976 to see how much human-caused climate change increased the chances of this extreme heat, per World Weather Attribution.

Between the lines: Research shows heat waves are becoming hotter, more frequent and longer lasting due to climate change.

The bottom line: "The science of how climate change is worsening heatwaves is settled," said Theodore Keeping, an extreme weather and wildfire researcher at Imperial College London, in a statement accompanying the report.

• "Continued fossil-fuel emissions are directly responsible for the disruption people are experiencing this week in their homes, schools and workplaces. The speed of change is startling. Every few years we are seeing heat records shattered in Europe."