European hospitals overwhelmed by heatwave, more misery to come

A deadly European heatwave that has saturated hospitals as temperatures soared to record highs was shifting east on Friday, with authorities warning of more misery on a continent not used to stretches of punishing heat.

At least 101 million Europeans have roasted for several days in temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius, with an estimated few hundred people, including children, thought to have died as a result, many drowning as they sought respite from the inferno.

Scientists said in a study released on Friday that climate change was responsible for the heat that broke records in Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland, while the Netherlands issued its first-ever red alert over heat.

They said ⁠the record-breaking heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, which has made this week’s stiflingly hot night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been even two decades ago.

“Over the region studied, this heatwave is the most severe ever recorded,” the World Weather Attribution group ‌of climate scientists said in their latest analysis on Friday.

They said human-caused climate change was “unequivocally” responsible for the intensity of the record-breaking heatwave.