The health agency called the deaths ‘unprecedented’.
It’s no wonder French people are fighting each other to be able to buy air conditioning and fans – it’s been quite the summer.
🚨🇫🇷 With some estimates indicating as many as 20,000 people may have died in the ongoing European heatwave, people in France are now breaking into supermarkets to raid the AC deliveries.
The biggest irony?
The crowd mostly looks like it originates from regions that are in…
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 3, 2026
French health agency recorded no less than 5,700 more deaths than usual during a historic heatwave a few weeks ago.
This sharply increases the estimates for the record-shattering temperature season.
🇫🇷 France recorded 5,764 more deaths than usual during a record-breaking heatwave last month, health authorities said on Wednesday, describing the excess mortality among people aged 15 and older as “unprecedented.”
➡️ https://t.co/VkEitAaFIp pic.twitter.com/CgOdDZZrhz— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 22, 2026
Associated Press reported:
“Public Health France said regions hit by the heat from June 17 to July 2 recorded 21,674 deaths from all causes. But without a heatwave, those same regions would have been expected to have seen far fewer deaths, or 15,910, based on statistical modeling using data from previous years, it said.
The difference between expected and actual deaths — a total of 5,764 — are therefore considered to be ‘excess’ deaths during the heatwave, the agency said.”
Paris region deaths more than doubled to reach 3,000 during June’s record heatwave
➡️ https://t.co/rF7lW6gOd4 pic.twitter.com/e9f1ljjeJR— FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) July 17, 2026
The 36% more deaths than normally expected is the highest from any heatwave since 2003 – so not exactly unprecedented, because 15,000 people died from heat that summer.
“France registered its hottest-ever days on June 24 and June 25 this year — with a national average of 30 C (86 F) — as well as record heat at night and peak temperatures that soared well above 40 C (104 F) in many places.
Just over half of the unexpected deaths occurred during and in the immediate wake of that hottest period, over three days from June 25 to June 27, the public health agency said.”
Reuters reported:
“Francois Bourdillon, who led France’s public-health agency from 2016 to 2019, said the country had come a long way since the 2003 heatwave. That event blindsided authorities and led to the creation of an alert system that mitigates the deadliest impacts of heatwaves with forecasting, public warnings and protections for vulnerable people.
[…] The issue was brought home to him when his sister-in-law recently underwent heart surgery in a top Paris hospital that lacked air conditioning, he said. His brother brought her a fan.
‘The lesson of 2003: We were blind. We’re no longer blind, that’s certain. We have indicators and we sound the alarm’, said Bourdillon. The lesson of 2026: Well, it’s not enough. We are in a sort of dystopia in which we can deal with the effects of the heatwave … but we forget the structural issues’.”
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