Ian Langsdon / EPA
After record temperatures in Germany and France, an intense heat wave moves to southeastern Europe. Meteorologists warn that relief in the West is likely to be short-lived and that more extreme heat is expected in July. Portugal could reach 43rd this week.
The historic heat wave that hit Western Europe last week has cooled in the region and This Monday, he traveled to Italy and the Balkans.
For more than a week, thermometers in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other countries registered record temperatures, above 40 ºCwith extreme heat paralyzing cities, causing damage to infrastructure and leaving a trail of more than a thousand deaths.
New wave on the horizon
This Monday, thermometers in Western Europe had already dropped, with cities like Berlin registering temperatures below 30 ºC.
Despite the decline, meteorologists warn that the relief in the West is not likely to last long and that Europeans are likely to face new waves of extreme heat throughout the summer.
Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, stated that the Temperatures could rise drastically again from the 5th or 6th of July.
“The affected areas are, in general terms, the same as in the first wave, including France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and to some extent the United Kingdom”, Mercalli told Reuters.
Meteorological expert Karsten Brandt told the German newspaper Bild that “everything will start again”.
“Temperatures will exceed 30°C this weekend. After that, they will rise even higher. The weather model shows a high pressure system moving from the Atlantic towards France and Belgium. 40°C.”
The current heat wave, which began on June 20, is the most severe ever recorded in Europe and it would have been “virtually impossible” this early in the summer without climate change, scientists at World Weather Attribution said.
The German Meteorological Service (DWD) classified the vacancy as “historic”. Historical temperature records were broken in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as records for the month of June in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
According to scientists, human-caused climate change has made this week’s high nighttime temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been just two decades ago.
And in Portugal?
According to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere, Portugal will enter a long period of very hot and dry weatherwith an increase in maximum temperatures being expected to values between 40°C and 43°C in the Tagus Valley and Alentejo starting on Wednesday.
Almost 20 municipalities in the districts of Bragança, Castelo Branco, Santarém, Portalegre and Faro face a maximum fire danger and all interior districts have very high danger counties.
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) has warned in statements that a long period of “very hot and dry weather” is expected in mainland Portugal, with maximum temperatures of up to 43 degrees in some regions.
“A long period of hot and dry weather is expected, with the maximum temperature reaching values between 40 and 43°C in the Tagus Valley and Alentejo from day 1 (Wednesday), and which could extend to some places in the remaining regions at the end of the week”, reads the statement distributed on Monday.
Also given these forecasts, the danger of fire will worsen and on Thursday and until July 8th the risk will be maximum and very high across practically the entire continent, according to the IPMA forecast. The rural fire danger determined by IPMA has five levels, ranging from low to maximum. Calculations are obtained from air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and amount of precipitation in the previous 24 hours.
“It’s an unprecedented phenomenon in Portugal”says Jorge Ponte, head of the meteorological forecast division at the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), to , who classifies this heat wave as the biggest ever in the country.
“The big news will be the persistence of such high temperatures for such a long period, especially in regions such as Lisbon, Alentejo and Ribatejo, which has never been seen in such a strong way,” said the expert.
Excess heat will be recorded in all places in Portugal.
“This is another unusual piece of data. Normally, this type of situation only affects specific parts of the country. This time, there will be no area that, from the outset, can escape“, says Ponte. “The minimum temperatures themselves will be higher than normal, hovering around an average of 25 degrees.”
Heat alerts in Italy and the Balkans
Em Italy22 cities, from Bolzano, in the north, to Palermo, on the island of Sicily, in the south, were under red heat alert this Monday.
Faithful in the Vatican used fans and fans to cool off and took shelter under umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun while Pope Leo XIV delivered the Angelus message from a balcony to the crowd, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, a public holiday in the city of Rome.
Already Croatiathe meteorological service issued a red alert on Monday for regions including the capital, Zagreb, and the tourist destinations of Split and Dubrovnik. Dozens of firefighters, supported by four aircraft, battled a forest fire on the Adriatic Sea resort island of Vis, about 55 kilometers southwest of Split.
In the neighbor Serbiathe State Hydrometeorological Service (RHMZ) warned that temperatures would reach 39 ºC this Monday.
Further south, the Albania contained a forest fire that consumed many hectares of bush and olive trees near Klos, in the south of the country, over the weekend.
The heat wave broke records for the start of summer and scorching conditions disrupted power supplies, damaged infrastructure and overwhelmed health systems.
A thousand deaths in France
France recorded a thousand excess deaths attributed to the heat wave. The country’s public health agency said most heat-related deaths involved elderly people and warned the number was expected to rise.
The French press reported that funeral homes in Paris and surrounding areas were overwhelmed by the number of bodies received and that several were refusing new requests.
Europe has had more than 1,300 deaths since June 21 related to the extreme heat wave that is ravaging the continent, warned the World Health Organization (WHO) this Sunday.
Temperatures drop in Germany after intense heat
Germany will have normal summer temperatures from this Monday, with maximum temperatures between 25 ºC and 29 ºC predicted in much of the country, according to the German Meteorological Service (DWD).
The drop comes after days of extreme heat, with a record temperature of 41.7 ºC reached this Sunday in the state of Brandenburg, in the east of the country.
It was the third record temperature in Germany in three days: 41.3 ºC measured in the western city of Saarbrücken on Friday; 41.4 ºC in the same place on Saturday; and 41.5 ºC in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, all in line with preliminary readings.
A DWD spokeswoman said June 2026 will likely be among the three hottest Junes since records began.
The end of the heat wave in Germany was accompanied by strong storms in many locations.
Germany has already registered a warming of 2.5 ºC compared to the pre-industrial era — more than the global average.
Severe heat in the US before July 4th
On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States National Weather Service warned of “dangerous heat, with temperatures between 32 ºC and 38 ºC in much of the central and eastern United States”, in the days leading up to the celebrations of the national holiday of July 4, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
“The combination of prolonged daytime warming and limited nighttime relief will increase the risk of heat-related illness, especially for vulnerable populations and people without adequate refrigeration,” the National Weather Service added.
