Europe experienced its fourth-warmest summer on record. Scorching temperatures took their toll, killing more than 16,000 people from June through July. Scientists say our overheating planet has more than tripled the number of heat-related deaths in 854 European cities.
Earth is on track for this year to rank among the top five warmest years on record for the planet. Scientists with the National Centers for Environmental Information say it is basically a lock, citing a 99.9% chance it will rank that high. A warm meteorological summer for the world certainly did nothing to lessen those odds.
The average land and ocean temperature for the June through August period was nearly two degrees above average, ranking the summer of 2025 as the third warmest on record, according to the NCEI August Global Climate Report. A recently released study found the scorching summer heat driven by a warming world caused an estimated 16,469 "additional excess deaths," nearly 70% of the summer deaths reported across 854 European cities.
"These numbers represent real people who have lost their lives," Imperial College London climate science professor Friederike Otto told Bloomberg.
Otto co-authored the study with researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Bern's Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, and other institutions.
"If we continue on the path that we are now — continue burning fossil fuels — these deaths will only increase," added Otto.
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As shocking as the number of deaths is, the authors of the study say the cities they analyzed covered only about 30% of Europe's population. The figure doesn't reflect the total number of excess deaths.
"Extreme heat is the deadliest type of weather and officially reported heat deaths remain significantly underestimated," said researchers.
The United States sweltered through a rather warm summer, too. The average temperature from June through August in the U.S. was 73.33 degrees Fahrenheit, around two degrees above average to rank this summer as the country's 12th warmest on record. The January through August period is the 10th warmest first eight months of the year on record.
Our warming world is supercharging heat waves, increasing their intensity and frequency, and causing more deaths. Far and away, heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States. Over the past 30 years, heat has killed more people on average annually than flooding, lightning, and hurricanes combined.
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"Current policies in place around the world are projected to result in about 2.7°C [4.86 degrees Fahrenheit] of warming above pre-industrial levels by 2100, which would result in many more heat-related deaths and impacts globally," warned the authors of the study on Europe's deadly summer. "This highlights yet again the urgent need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels to secure a liveable future."
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