Europe endured another day of record-breaking heat on Sunday as France reported around 1,000 excess deaths from last week’s extreme temperatures, while wildfires spread in Germany and authorities across the continent struggled to respond to the escalating health and environmental crisis.
Temperature records were broken in several countries over the weekend as the heat wave slowly moved toward the eastern parts of the continent.
In Germany, a new nighttime temperature record was reported Sunday from Kubschütz, in eastern Saxony, where the temperature did not drop below 29.4 degrees Celsius (84.9 Fahrenheit).
The nightly record came only hours after a daytime record of 41.5 C (106.7 F) in Möckern-Drewitz in Saxony-Anhalt, according to preliminary data by the German Weather Service DWD. The previous record was set a day earlier.
A new study from the World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based collaboration of scientists, reported Friday that the record-breaking heat and humidity in Europe this week would not have been possible without climate change.
The rapid study found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago.
