Record heat across Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany exposed how quickly the region’s infrastructure and public services buckle when temperatures soar. In Germany, the famous Autobahn was overwhelmed as temperatures were expected to hit 40 C (104 F), and in two places outside Berlin, the concrete of the A2 burst because of the heat, forcing the highway to close.
Who Pays When the System Overheats
The damage was not limited to roads. Train operator Deutsche Bahn and other rail companies advised against all nonessential train travel this weekend, a blunt admission that the transportation network could not absorb the strain. “Germany’s transportation infrastructure is being severely affected by the record-breaking heat this weekend,” Deutsche Bahn said in a statement. The warning landed as temperatures climbed across the continent, with unusually high readings even in the Nordic countries not known for sweltering summers.
Denmark’s Meteorological Institute reported a record 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Ødum north of Aarhus, the warmest day since records there began in 1874. In Switzerland, Basel hit a record 38.8 C (101.8 F). The Czech Republic also saw its hottest day on record, with 40.8 C (105.4 F) in the northern town of Doksany, and forecasters said it may still rise.
The Human Cost at the Bottom
In the western German city of Dormagen, dozens of residents of a nursing home were evacuated for medical care because of dangerous heat conditions in the building. The local fire department reported that temperatures inside the home had reached 35 C (95 F). Air conditioning is not widespread in Germany and many countries in Europe because the continent is largely unused to such oppressive heat. A resident at the home died overnight, though a city spokesperson told German news agency dpa that it was not yet clear whether the heat was the cause.
France faced a different kind of overload: public hospitals. Paris and 36 other regions, stretching from the center to the east and northeast, remained in the extreme-heat red zone on Saturday, down from a peak on Thursday of 72 regions under such warnings. The capital continued to see unrelenting pressure on its hospitals, with a second consecutive day of nearly 3,000 people seeking care in public hospital emergency rooms, about a third more than normal. The Paris public hospital authority, AP-HP, said it activated its emergency response plan across all 38 hospitals to cope. Phone calls to its medical dispatch centers were up nearly 80% compared with the same period in 2025, it said.
The temperatures this week were higher than those during a historic 2003 heat wave that was blamed for 15,000 heat-related deaths, many of them older people. During another exceptionally hot summer last year, more than 5,700 deaths were attributed to heat, according to France’s public health authority. AP-HP’s director, Nicolas Revel, said, “I think we’ll be situated, clearly, between 2025 and without necessarily reaching the catastrophic level of 2003. But we have to expect that there will still be many deaths,” he said.
Warnings, Closures and the Limits of Official Relief
Concerns that hospitals could be overwhelmed prompted the postponement of the Paris Pride march for LGBTQ+ rights on Saturday, and a three-day music festival was canceled. In the U.K., sweltering conditions were expected to gradually ease this weekend though an amber warning — one step down from red — remained in place until Saturday night. Britons struggled to cope this week as the record June temperature was smashed three days in a row. Friday was confirmed as the country’s hottest June day on record, with a provisional temperature of 37.3 C (99 F) recorded in eastern England.
On Saturday, police said the bodies of a 22-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy were recovered from a lake and a river. The deaths bring the total number of U.K. heat-related fatalities this week to four. Authorities in the U.K. have warned people to take extra care when swimming in unsupervised areas following the deaths of around 40 people in France over the past week.
Italy’s capital remained under a red heat alert, where tourists tried to cool off by seeking shade near buildings and dunking their heads under public fountains. Street vendors were doing a brisk business selling bottled water, hats and sun umbrellas. Some turned to Italian classics for relief. “Gelato, pasta, because it’s tradition, but also fresh fruit, and ice cold drinks, that’s the best for this temperature,” said Isabella Dold, a tourist from Kempten, Germany. On Saturday, Italy’s health ministry said 18 cities — including Venice, Florence, Bologna and Milan — were on red alert due to danger posed by the high temperatures.
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. André Corrêa do Lago, the president of the U.N. climate talks known as COP30, said the heat wave has “helped strengthen the perception of urgency of fighting climate change.” “The fact that we are living with this amazing heat in London is a strong argument, we need to agree, that we have to take action as soon as possible,” do Lago told The Associated Press.