As global temperatures continue to rise, extreme heat is becoming an increasingly deadly consequence of a warming planet. This past summer, Europe endured soaring temperatures and multiple heatwaves. Now, a new analysis offers a shocking estimate of the season’s toll on human life.

Scientists estimate that the heat killed more than 50,000 people across 854 European cities this summer, a substantially higher number than previous records in 2022 and 2003. In a new study, which is accepted for publication in Nature Health, the team of researchers analyzed temperature and mortality data across different cities and age groups to estimate heat-related deaths between June and August.

The authors behind the study blame “human-caused warming driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels” for around two-thirds of the heat-related deaths over the summer.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Since the mid-1990s, temperatures across Europe have risen by approximately 1.01 degrees Fahrenheit (0.56 degrees Celsius) per decade—more than twice the global average.

The summer of 2026 was Europe’s third-hottest summer on record, while Western Europe endured its hottest summer ever recorded, with a series of heatwaves that began in late May and persisted until the end of August. According to research by the World Weather Attribution, heatwaves cause more deaths in Europe than all other natural hazards combined.

The researchers behind the new study combined climate attribution models with data on the relationship between temperature and mortality to estimate how many people would have died with and without the effects of climate change.

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