Overview
- Italy’s Health Ministry put every city monitored under its national heat-surveillance system on red alert on Thursday, signaling a health risk to the entire population and prompting advice to avoid sun exposure and stay hydrated.
- Austria recorded a national high of 41.2°C in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, setting a country record and underlining how temperatures have pushed around or above 40°C across parts of Europe.
- Hungary cut output at its only nuclear plant to roughly 10% because low Danube levels reduced cooling capacity, and the government ordered energy-saving measures that included switching off decorative lights.
- Large wildfires continued to burn or threaten reactivation in southeastern France and the Balkans, while drought in northern Italy’s Po Valley left over 100 towns facing water shortages and forced some farmers to rely on tanker deliveries.
- Climate agencies and scientists link the season’s repeated heatwaves to human-driven warming and warn that the event exposes vulnerabilities in cooling, water management and inland shipping that will require longer-term adaptation.