UK sets new record for the hottest June day
The Met Office has just confirmed that temperatures have reached 36.4C at Yeovilton in Somerset, provisionally making it the hottest June day ever recorded.
It surpassed the previous record of 36.1C set, erm, yesterday, and the previous record of 35.9C from 1976.
Key events
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Closing summary
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Unions urge teachers to strike as French school exams go ahead in up to 40C heat
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Netherlands issues first ever red alert over heat
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Europeans grapple with scorching June heatwave – video
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New UK June record could be exceeded again in coming hours, expert says
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French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows
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London Ambulance Service responds to highest ever ife-threatening emergencies as heatwave continues
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UK’s hottest June day on record – in pictures
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UK sets new record for the hottest June day
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Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat
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France shuts down two nuclear reactors in heatwave precaution
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UK lawyers raise concerns about immigration detainees being held in breach of temperature laws
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Extreme temperatures ‘no longer future threat, but present danger,’ London mayor warns
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UK’s high temperature record for June likely to be broken again today, a day after the previous record
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Three-year-old found dead in car during France heatwave
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UK’s Starmer says government has been holding official-level Cobra meetings on heatwave
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Germany set to see temperatures above 40C this weekend and ‘extreme’ heat stress
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Five deaths reported in last 24 hours in Italy as temperatures cross into 40s
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212 deaths reported in Spain as heatwave breaks June temperature records
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Heatwave creates perfect conditions for surge in mosquitoes, expert warns
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Government urged to refurbish schools to respond to risks of extreme heat events
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Met Office extended red extreme heat warning into Friday with up to 38C in east, south-east England
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It’s not just hot days, but warm nights that pose higher health risk, experts say
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UK water operator imposes temporary hosepipe ban amid growing strain from heatwave
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France breaks hottest ever night record set earlier this week
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Germany’s DB gives passengers option to cancel planned rail trips this weekend due to extreme weather
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‘This is what climate crisis looks like in practice, and it’s just getting started’
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Heatwave linked to 212 deaths in Spain, estimates show
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UK records its hottest June day and France its hottest day ever as heatwave sweeps Europe
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101 million Europeans to experience temperatures above 35C today
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UK universities cancel student open days due to extreme heat
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Paris mayor reports ‘increase in mortality’ due to heatwave
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Morning opening: The heatwave continues
Closing summary
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Teachers in France are risking their own and students’ health in overheated schools as a severe heatwave sets new record temperatures, education unions said, urging staff to strike over “unacceptable working conditions”. Several teaching unions on Thursday issued a joint statement denouncing a “blatant lack of preparation” by the government, after teachers have had to work in classrooms where temperatures reached up to 40C.
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The UK’s new provisional high of 36.4C (97.5F), recorded in Yeovilton, Somerset, surpassed Wednesday’s June record of 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire, which had beaten the previous peak of 35.6C set in Southampton in 1976.
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The Netherlands issued its first-ever red alert for heat for Friday, warning of “dangerous” conditions as a record-setting heatwave scorched Europe. The national weather institute issued the alert for much of the country, where temperatures are forecast to reach 40C in some places.
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Switzerland registered its hottest ever June temperature on Thursday, with 38C measured in the northern city of Basel, breaking a previous record of 36.9C set eight decades ago, the Swiss weather service said. “Temperatures exceeded 37C for the first time in Switzerland during the month of June, breaking a record set in 1947,” MeteoSuisse said on X, adding that “a temperature of 38C was even recorded at the Basel weather station”.
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France’s main energy provider Thursday shut down two nuclear reactors as an environmental protection measure to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming in a record-breaking heatwave, AFP reported. Power plants critical to the country’s electricity production use river water to cool their reactors, which heats the water that is then released back into the river.
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In France, a three-year-old has died after finding himself trapped in a car in the Paris region in extreme heat, a prosecutor said, the third such fatality this week, AFP reported. The boy had slipped into the family car while his father thought he was napping, then found himself unable to get out with the child lock in the town of Saint-Gratien, the prosecutor said, after a police source and civil defence also reported the death.
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A heatwave sweeping Europe was starting to peak in Germany on Thursday, with several open-air events cancelled and temperatures expected to top 40C through the weekend, AFP reported. Large parts of the country are already under “severe to extreme heat stress” with temperatures soaring to around 37C, the German Weather Service (DWD) said.
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Italy’s latest heatwave has claimed five lives in less than 24 hours, as temperatures climbed to 41C across much of the country. After a 57-year-old man died while working in a field near Lodi, outside Milan, on Tuesday, four more deaths were reported on Wednesday.
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Over the past four days 212 people have died prematurely in Spain as a result of the heatwave, according to scientists using a system for monitoring mortality. As temperatures rise to 42C in some regions, often not falling below 30C at night, the June heatwave is breaking records that were set this time last year, making it the hottest June since 1950.
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In Germany, the country’s rail operator Deutsche Bahn, or DB, offered passengers booked for this weekend an option to cancel their ticket free of charge. The option is available to all passengers who booked their tickets before 23 June, and were due to travel between today and 30 June.
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The heatwave continues to disrupt the British education system with University College London, one of the UK’s largest universities, cancelling its student open days planned for Friday and Saturday, relieving thousands of prospective undergraduates and parents from travelling to central London.
Unions urge teachers to strike as French school exams go ahead in up to 40C heat
Angelique Chrisafis
Teachers in France are risking their own and students’ health in overheated schools as a severe heatwave sets new record temperatures, education unions said, urging staff to strike over “unacceptable working conditions”.
Several teaching unions on Thursday issued a joint statement denouncing a “blatant lack of preparation” by the government, after teachers have had to work in classrooms where temperatures reached up to 40C.
“The health of staff and pupils is being put at risk,” unions said, suggesting staff strike individually wherever and whenever they felt it necessary.
Most of France is under red alert, and the heatwave is expected to reach its peak on Thursday. Authorities closed 3,500 schools considered too dangerously hot and reduced hours at a further 10,000.
Most French school buildings – and their exposed playgrounds – were not designed for extreme temperatures. Many buildings are not properly insulated and most lack air-conditioning. Many schools were designed with large windows and no external shutters, causing classroom temperatures to soar above 30C or even 40C.
In some nursery and primary schools, teachers have had to keep curtains closed and spray children with water to try to cool them.
Netherlands issues first ever red alert over heat
The Netherlands issued its first-ever red alert for heat for Friday, warning of “dangerous” conditions as a record-setting heatwave scorched Europe.
The national weather institute issued the alert for much of the country, where temperatures are forecast to reach 40C in some places.
Here is a graphic that shows the projected proportion of working hours lost to heat stress by sector, across the world, for 2030:
Switzerland registered its hottest ever June temperature on Thursday, with 38C measured in the northern city of Basel, breaking a previous record of 36.9C set eight decades ago, the Swiss weather service said.
“Temperatures exceeded 37C for the first time in Switzerland during the month of June, breaking a record set in 1947,” MeteoSuisse said on X, adding that “a temperature of 38C was even recorded at the Basel weather station”.
Europeans grapple with scorching June heatwave – video
As western Europe bakes under what scientists describe as a heat dome, or ‘atmospheric lid’, residents across the continent are grappling with extreme temperatures caused by climate breakdown.
New UK June record could be exceeded again in coming hours, expert says
The Met Office said the new record for the hottest June day could be exceeded again in the coming hours, PA reported.
Greg Wolverson, deputy chief meteorologist at the Met Office said:
“We’ve seen a new provisional June maximum temperature record for a second consecutive day as the heatwave continues.
This marks unprecedented heat for the month of June and provides further evidence of how high temperature extremes are becoming increasingly common in the UK as a result of human-induced climate change.
There’s a chance of this record being challenged again as the warmth moves more markedly east on Friday, before a gradual easing in temperatures through the weekend.”
French struggle with heat-trap homes as climate inequality grows

Angelique Chrisafis
Living in a sweltering, seventh-floor flat on a concrete housing estate south of Paris, Samira said she was feeling desperate as France experienced its highest temperatures on record this week.
“Yesterday I sat down and cried, I thought I’m going to die,” said the 35-year-old single parent and former building caretaker.
Her flat in Ris-Orangis in Essonne is, like millions of apartments in France, poorly insulated and lacking in outside window shutters. “Blazing sun hits my windows all day – I can’t breathe, I feel dizzy, there is no air,” she said.
More than 44 million people in France, out of a total population of 67 million, have been under the highest red alert for heat this week, with daytime temperatures exceeding 40C in many places and staying dangerously hot at night.
London Ambulance Service responds to highest ever ife-threatening emergencies as heatwave continues
Andrew Gregory
Health editor
London Ambulance Service has responded to its highest ever number of life-threatening emergencies in a single day amid soaring temperatures in the capital, senior officials said on Thursday.
Ambulance crews attended 642 Category 1 calls on Wednesday, according to LAS. Category 1 incidents include the most serious, life-threatening injuries and illnesses, such as cardiac arrests and patients who are not breathing.
“We have seen the highest number of life-threatening emergencies in our history, driven by the extreme heat across London,” said LAS chief executive Jason Killens.
Wednesday was also the fifth busiest day in the service’s history overall, with 7,900 calls and crews responding to almost 3,600 patients.
The surge in calls this week is directly linked to the hot weather, with crews responding to more people who are fainting, struggling to breathe or experiencing heart problems, senior officials said.
UK’s hottest June day on record – in pictures
UK sets new record for the hottest June day
The Met Office has just confirmed that temperatures have reached 36.4C at Yeovilton in Somerset, provisionally making it the hottest June day ever recorded.
It surpassed the previous record of 36.1C set, erm, yesterday, and the previous record of 35.9C from 1976.
Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat
Andrew Gregory
Health editor
Doctors have sounded the alarm over the disastrous impact of extreme heat on the NHS in England, with radiotherapy machines and MRI scanners failing, critical IT systems stalling and cooling units that serve entire hospitals breaking down.
The hot weather has also prompted a surge in admissions and people arriving at A&E, causing severe overcrowding in some places and exacerbating heat-related pressures on infrastructure.
“Lots of people, especially older patients, are turning up having collapsed or with dehydration,” one physician said. “In terms of inpatients, the conditions are awful due to overcrowding. Very few places have air conditioning and staff are really struggling.”
Older patients in one geriatric ward had been forced to endure temperatures as high as 35C, a second doctor said. Even wards with built-in air conditioning were affected, as some units were shut down to prevent them being damaged by the extreme heat.
Another doctor said their workplace was “unfit to cope”, with patients and staff experiencing “awful conditions” in sweltering wards, clinics and corridors. NHS staff were also navigating the challenge of providing care while sleep-deprived. Like much of the UK population, many have struggled to sleep this week.
Several NHS trusts in England have declared critical incidents as a direct result of the extreme heat. One hospital had done so after its machines failed in multiple areas, a doctor said. Labs used for testing were also affected and two linear accelerator machines, used to treat cancer patients, had stopped working amid the high temperatures.
Let’s take a quick view at the latest temperature readings from across Europe at 3pm continental, 2pm UK.
Paris 40C
Nantes 40C
Brussels 36C
Barcelona 35C
Frankfurt 35C
Geneva 35C
Berlin 34C
Prague 34C
Budapest 33C
Vienna 33C
London 32C
France shuts down two nuclear reactors in heatwave precaution
France’s main energy provider Thursday shut down two nuclear reactors as an environmental protection measure to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming in a record-breaking heatwave, AFP reported.
Power plants critical to the country’s electricity production use river water to cool their reactors, which heats the water that is then released back into the river.
The EDF energy group on Thursday said it had temporarily shut down two reactors to comply with temperature limits of the rivers at the Nogent-sur-Seine power plant on the Seine river in northern France, and in Bugey on the Rhone near the southeastern city on Lyon.
AFP noted that the Nogent-sur-Seine plant had already reduced production in another reactor days earlier “to limit the temperature increase between the water withdrawn from the Seine and the water discharged back into it, thereby protecting aquatic plant and animal life”.
UK lawyers raise concerns about immigration detainees being held in breach of temperature laws

Diane Taylor
Over in the UK, thousands of immigration detainees are being held behind bars by the Home Office in temperatures up to ten degrees hotter than the maximum permitted. Lawyers are calling on the Home Office to release their clients because of the breach.
According to government rules for these centres “the maximum permitted temperature must not exceed 28 degrees C”. Lawyers are writing to government officials highlighting the fact that temperatures in cells are exceeding the permitted maximum.
One detainee told the Guardian:
“It is unbearably hot in our cells. It is too hot to even wear any clothes. But because we are locked up there’s nothing we can do to cool down.”
Home Office sources said that specialist assessments of options to reduce temperatures were being carried out.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
“We take the welfare of those in our care extremely seriously, and our teams are responding to mitigate the impact of recent high temperatures on Immigration Removal Centres.
Robust measures are in place to support residents, including access to bottled water, summer clothing, sun cream and fully stocked first-aid kits.”
HMIP is about to embark on a full inspection of one of the immigration detention centres, Tinsley House near Gatwick Airport.
A spokesperson said: ”Accommodation for detainees should be suitably ventilated. Although the current weather is unprecedented, heat waves are not uncommon. We expect the Home Office and its contractors to prepare for contingencies such as this, to keep detainees and staff safe.”
Extreme temperatures ‘no longer future threat, but present danger,’ London mayor warns

Damian Carrington
Environment editor
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, launched the city’s first heat plan on Thursday.
”Extreme temperatures are no longer a future threat, they are a present danger,” he said. The plan includes retrofitting homes at the highest risk of overheating, more tree cover, and safe access to water for paddling and swimming. A 2025 study found the number of UK homes reporting overheating in summer quadrupled to 80% in a decade.
Measurements taken by Greenpeace found pavements, rail platforms, building sites and other places across London reached surface temperatures of 50C to 60C on Wednesday. The black rubber floor of a playground in Islington was recorded at 53C at 5pm.
“This record-smashing heatwave has turned London into a sticky, sizzling cauldron,” said Mel Evans, Greenpeace UK’s head of climate.
“This isn’t just weather – it’s a public health emergency driven by fossil fuel giants. These abnormal temperatures are stretching homes, schools, transport and our own health to breaking point.”
UK’s high temperature record for June likely to be broken again today, a day after the previous record

Damian Carrington
Environment editor
The UK’s high temperature record for June is also likely to be broken on Thursday, just a day after the previous record.
The heatwave, supercharged by the climate crisis, drove the temperature to 36.1C at Gosport in Hampshire on Wednesday, beating the previous record of 35.6C set in Southampton in 1976.
Heatwaves are now more severe and more likely because of the carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels, with scientists estimating the current extreme temperatures across Europe are between 2C and 4C higher as a result.
Many thousands of people are likely to have died prematurely in the heat, but the statistical analysis required to determine the number takes time to complete. The UK Health Security Agency found that more than 10,000 people died in Britain owing to summer heatwaves between 2020 and 2024.
