Europe swelters through record-breaking summer
Britain, Belgium and Spain recorded their hottest summers on record in 2026, with prolonged heat, unusually dry conditions and repeated heat waves underscoring the growing impact of climate change across Europe.
The UK experienced its warmest summer since national records began, the Met Office said Tuesday.
The provisional average mean temperature reached 16.5C (61.7F), making summer 2026 the hottest season in a record dating back to 1884.
The Met Office said parts of the country also experienced some of their sunniest conditions since sunshine records began in 1910, while many areas remained unusually dry.
Late-season rainfall prevented some regions from reaching record-low rainfall totals.
The agency said human-induced climate change made the summer's mean temperature around 130 times more likely.
Belgium surpasses 20C summer average
Belgium also recorded its hottest summer on record, with an average temperature of 20.3C (68.5F), according to the Royal Meteorological Institute.
Measurements at Uccle averaged 2.4C above the seasonal norm, marking the first summer in which the average temperature exceeded 20C.
The previous record was 19.9C, set in 2018.
Uccle recorded temperatures of at least 25C on 46 days, while Belgium experienced 64 consecutive days from June 16 to Aug. 18 with maximum temperatures of at least 20C.
Three heat waves swept the country. The first, from June 17 to 28, was the longest and most intense, with temperatures reaching 35.5C on June 26.
Belgium's highest temperature of the summer reached 40.4C in Houyet on June 27. It was the third consecutive year that temperatures of at least 40C were recorded in the country.
Spain suffers prolonged extreme heat
Spain endured its hottest summer on record, with an average mainland temperature of 26C between June 1 and Aug. 31, according to provisional data cited by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.
The figure was 2.5C above the 1991-2020 average. Temperatures were above normal on 95% of summer days.
Spain experienced four heat waves and 49 consecutive days of above-normal temperatures between June 6 and July 24.
July was the hottest month on record, averaging 27.3C, while June and August ranked as the second-hottest for their respective months.
The extreme heat was also linked to a record number of heat-attributable deaths. Spain's Daily Mortality Monitoring System attributed 5,111 deaths to high temperatures during June, July and August, more than twice the 2015-2025 summer average.
August recorded the highest number, with 2,192 heat-attributable deaths, followed by 2,025 in July and 937 in June.
Extreme temperatures break records
Spain recorded 342 maximum temperature records and 470 records for the highest minimum temperatures during the summer.
Temperatures reached 45.1C in Andujar in southern Spain on June 22, while some locations experienced exceptionally hot nights. At Almeria Airport, temperatures did not fall below 30.8C on one of the summer's hottest nights.
The heat extended beyond the daytime, with temperatures remaining above 20C somewhere in Spain every night during the summer.
September heat continues
The end of summer has not brought an immediate break from the heat in Spain.
The country's meteorological agency has warned of continued summer-like temperatures, with widespread heat alerts and forecasts of 37C to 40C across parts of the northeast, center and south.
The record temperatures across Britain, Belgium and Spain come amid broader concerns over the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat linked to human-induced climate change.
Source:AA
