Austria: 646 heat-related deaths recorded in June and July - Sarmad

Austria recorded the highest death toll, with 646 fatalities, due to heat during June and July of last year, amid severe heatwaves that swept across Europe this summer.

The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) reported 646 heat-related deaths, surpassing the previous record of 570 deaths recorded during the same two months in 2024.

Scientists have noted that climate change driven by human activities has made extreme weather events more intense and frequent, and Europe has become the fastest-warming continent in the world.

Like much of the continent, Austria broke temperature records and experienced droughts this summer. In early August, a heat record of 41.2°C was set in the Bad Deutsch-Altenburg area in eastern Austria, exceeding the previous record of 41°C, which had been recorded just one day earlier in the capital, Vienna.