France has recorded the hottest summer since registration

At a press conference on the analysis of the weather summer (which covers the months of June, July and September), the director of Météo France, Virginie Schwarz, considered this number of hot days “really exceptional”.

The previous record of hot days was 2022, with 33.

The agency describes heat waves as the period that begins when the national thermal indicator (the average of weather stations taken as reference) exceeds 25,3 degrees Celsius and ends officially when this indicator falls again below 23,4 °C for more than two consecutive days.

Schwarz also indicated that the number of times during the summer when Météo France stations exceeded 40 °C increased considerably this year compared to a typical summer, “which translates into a completely unprecedented number of days of heat wave” in France.

Present at the press conference, French Ecology Minister Monique Barbut said it is “the hottest summer ever recorded since the start of measurements in 1900.”.

The vacancy at the end of June (from 17 to 30) was the most intense, following the periods from 4 to 19 July and from 28 July to 19 August.

The heat caused a provisional number of more than 7,300 excess deaths in France, below 15,000 of the historic summer of 2003.

The country also suffered extreme fires during this period, such as what devastated part of Gironda.

“By the end of August, forest fires had burned six times as many areas as the average of the last 20 years,” Monique Barbut said.

“ The summer of 2026 will be for history, but the question we have to ask ourselves now is how this will continue: as the first of a long series that will continue to set records, or as a moment that will have allowed us to face the challenges of adaptation and mitigation, i.e. the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the minister commented, calling for an “electroshock”.

“No one was better prepared than us” in Europe, the minister said, while the government has been criticized by the opposition and non-governmental organisations for their “inaction” since the beginning of summer.

The heat has had multiple effects, including disturbed school examinations, closed nuclear reactors and endangered crops.

The Minister of Economics, Roland Lescure, recognized “an absolutely terrifying impact” of repeated heat waves.

At the end of July, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu instructed Monique Barbut to present new measures to “accelerate” the implementation of the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

The minister today promised conclusions “until the end of September”, with a five-year financing plan.

“We will not suffer events, expect them to happen to make decisions,” he insisted, calling for “preparing the next summer as if it were going to be the same.”.

“We will not have renewed all the schools until next summer, but at least we can install ports and fans there,” Monique Barbut said, recognizing “a number of situations” in which we will need to “pay more attention.”.

“ Likewise, we will not have diversified the species of all our forests until the next heat wave. But until then, we can imagine quick solutions to facilitate the access of firefighters ", added the minister.