Overview
- The Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit (AGES) reported 646 heat-associated excess deaths for June and July, the highest total recorded in Austria.
- June was the deadliest month on record with 395 heat-associated deaths, an average of about 13 deaths per day.
- The totals use a revised method that compares daily weather and death data and attributes delayed heat impacts up to 21 days, which captures deaths linked to prolonged heat spells more accurately than earlier weekly counts.
- A separate analysis shows widespread strain on care infrastructure: by the end of July more than 70 percent of hospitals and care homes and 80 percent of primary care centers had endured at least 20 hot days.
- August’s heatwave, including a national high of 41.2°C in Bad Deutsch-Altenberg, is not yet included in AGES’s numbers so officials expect the toll to rise and the Health Minister has pledged targeted measures focused on the highest-risk places and people.