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Record breaking spring season heatwaves have engulfed the United Kingdom and many parts of western and central Europe due to a heat dome situated over the continent. Scientists from Imperial College London and World Weather Attribution (WWA) highlight that such early season heatwaves are made hotter, longer and far more frequent due to climate change and could be cause for enhanced public health risks.
On May 26, 2026, London’s Kew Gardens area broke the provisional record for highest day time temperature recorded in May at 35.1°C, according to the Associated Press (AP). The same station had recorded 34.8°C the previous day which had broken the record for the highest May temperature of 32.8°C set in 1922 and matched but not surpassed in 1944, as per AP. London also recorded a rare tropical night on May 26 during which nighttime temperatures do not fall below 20°C.
Temperatures in the southwestern regions of France were a record breaking 36°C on May 25, with many areas also experiencing tropical nights. Regions in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Germany and Italy are also experiencing heightened temperatures in the last week of May. The temperatures in many of these regions are 12°C-16°C above the climatological normals, according to the weather and climate analysis platform Severe Weather Europe.
“A classic, highly anomalous and powerful Heat Dome has parked over Western and Central Europe,” wrote weather forecaster Marko Korosec on Severe Weather Europe. “This atmospheric block acts as a physical lid, trapping a subsiding air mass beneath it. The intense solar radiation combined with compression forces the air, intensifying heat towards the surface,” he added. The heat dome has built up northwards of Africa, according to Korosec.
Such extreme heat can significantly impact human health, especially for vulnerable populations such as elderly people, children, people with existing health conditions, outdoor workers such as farmers and people living in poverty. “Heat exhaustion occurs with prolonged exposure to high temperatures. It leads to dehydration, dizziness, and, in more severe cases, heat exhaustion can progress to heat stroke,” wrote Korosec.
“High relative humidity during a heatwave can also significantly affect the body. For this reason, we use a Heat Index to represent the perceived feel of scorching-hot temperatures and high humidity. It illustrates the natural relationship between temperature and humidity,” he added.
“Early-season heatwaves are especially hazardous because our bodies have not had time to acclimatise. Our modeling estimates that we could see more than 250 additional deaths during this heatwave in England and Wales,” said Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, lecturer at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, in a statement.
“This aligns with a broader analysis we conducted across 854 European cities last summer which revealed that heat caused thousands of preventable deaths — with two-thirds of those fatalities driven directly by the additional heat from climate change,” he added.
“This record-breaking heat has the fingerprints of climate change all over it. Temperatures on this scale were once exceptional even at the height of summer. Seeing 35C in the UK during spring is absolutely astonishing, but the science is very clear — climate change makes these heatwaves hotter, longer, and far more frequent,” said Friederike Otto, Professor of Climate Science, Imperial College London, in a statement.
“The climate we are living in today is simply not the one we grew up with, and our buildings and infrastructure are woefully unprepared for what’s next. While we have made some progress in cutting emissions, it is not fast enough. Temperature records will continue to tumble until we fundamentally halt global emissions and reach net zero,” said Otto.
The heat dome may persist over western and central Europe for the remainder of May, bringing record-breaking temperatures and health risks to missions of people, according to Korosec.