The Foreign Office has issued an urgent update for Britons travelling to Spain, Portugal or France, warning of serious health risks and wildfires as a record-breaking heatwave grips Europe. The alert came on Tuesday afternoon as French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed 40 drowning deaths since last Thursday, mainly young people, after temperatures soared.
France recorded its hottest June day on Tuesday, averaging 29.8C, and its hottest night on Monday at a minimum of 21.6C, according to Météo France. More than half the country – 54 areas – is on red alert. Sports and Youth Minister Marina Ferrari warned against swimming in unsupervised spots: “It's not something to be taken lightly, going swimming in unsupervised areas during a heatwave.” Among the dead was a 13-year-old girl who drowned in the River Seine at Fontaine-La Port on Sunday evening, unable to swim. A young professional footballer remains critically ill after being pulled from the River Rhône near Lyon in a banned-swimming zone, and two children aged two and four were found dead in a family car in Carpentras.
“UK holidaymakers warned of extreme heat risks as 40 drown in France and temperatures hit record highs.”
In Spain, temperatures are forecast to peak above 40C, with red alerts in Andalusia (44C expected), Cantabria and the Basque Country. Aemet meteorologist Rubén del Campo warned that heatwaves are becoming more frequent, longer and appearing outside traditional July-August windows, driven by climate change. Spain has seen 10 June heatwaves since 2000, compared to just two in the previous 25 years. Italy declared red alerts in 15 cities, including Rome, Milan and Florence, signalling risks even to healthy adults.
Germany is also affected, with the German Lifesaving Association reporting six fatal drownings as temperatures climb towards 40C. The Foreign Office referred travellers to the Travel Health Pro website, flagging risks of dehydration, overheating and heatstroke. Europe, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s. The World Health Organisation’s Europe office said this month that more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes in the last four years, most of them preventable. Last year was the hottest on record for Europe, with the second-highest number of “heat stress” days.