{"id":214769,"date":"2026-06-24T22:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/france-records-hottest-day-ever-as-europe-suffers-brutal-heat-wave-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:02:44","slug":"france-records-hottest-day-ever-as-europe-suffers-brutal-heat-wave-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/france-records-hottest-day-ever-as-europe-suffers-brutal-heat-wave-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"France records hottest day ever as Europe suffers brutal heat wave – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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PARIS \u2014 France again shattered records for its hottest day ever Wednesday, with more brutal temperatures as a deadly heat wave <\/a>scorches much of western Europe.
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Thousands of \u200bhomes were hit by power cuts in northern France, while the punishing temperatures prompted the Eiffel Tower<\/a> and the Louvre museum<\/a> to restrict visiting hours.
Red alerts were also in place in Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as the extreme early summer heat forced school closures, travel disruption and alarm about climate change across a region ill-equipped for such blistering conditions.
A high of 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 Fahrenheit) was measured in parts of Landes, in the southwest.
The record of 29.8 C for France\u2019s national thermal indicator \u2014 an average of <\/strong>day and nighttime temperatures measured at 30 weather stations \u2014 was only the latest in a series of never-before-registered highs heaped on Europe in this latest heat wave.
\u201cFurther record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,\u201d the Meteo France weather service said, adding that the conditions were comparable to a 16-day heat wave in \u200bAugust \u20602003 that caused an estimated 80,000 excess deaths across Europe.
At least 48 people have died in France from drowning as they tried to escape the crippling heat, authorities said.
Two young children were killed by heat in a car, prosecutors in the southern commune of Carpentras said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cThe mother, speaking voluntarily, confirmed that the children had locked themselves in the vehicle without her knowledge,\u201d it added.
At Paris\u2019 Charles de Gaulle Airport<\/a>, passengers scrolling through their weather apps were greeted with a slew of red across much of France early Wednesday, warning about the risks of extreme heat for tens of millions of people.
\u201cWe knew it would be hot, we didn\u2019t realize it would be the hottest day of on record,\u201d a woman arriving from the United Kingdom told her friend as they waited in line. Another woman said she would hide out in her hotel where there is air conditioning.
Tourists hoping to visit the city\u2019s iconic Eiffel Tower may be disappointed for a second day after it closed Tuesday afternoon. Those with tickets were asked to check their emails on the tower\u2019s website Wednesday. \u201cVisitors without tickets are asked to postpone their visit,\u201d it said.
The Louvre also said it would close two hours earlier than normal from Wednesday through Saturday.
\u201cAlthough parts of its historic building are naturally resilient, the museum remains vulnerable and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change,\u201d museum officials said. \u201cHeat buildup is greatest toward the end of the day and is further intensified by high visitor numbers.\u201d
Outisde the museum, American tourists Dom and Jenn Caruso were sweltering.
\u201cUnbearably hot,\u201d Dom Caruso, 45, said. \u201cIt\u2019s just ridiculous, you can\u2019t seem to escape it.\u201d He added they had no choice but to push on through, otherwise they flew from their home near Detroit \u201cto sit in a hotel room, and that just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d
\u201cSo we\u2019re here just to see what we can see, enjoy as much as we can and deal with it with water and fans and whatever we can,\u201d he said.
Jenn Caruso, 43, added that together with their two children, they were planning to visit the Louvre before taking a cruise on the Seine.
\u201cWe\u2019re experiencing an episode of exceptional intensity,\u201d French Prime Minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu<\/a> said Tuesday. \u201cEvery day and every night, local and national temperature records are being broken.\u201d
Europe is the world\u2019s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising roughly twice as fast as the global average as climate change makes these bouts of extreme weather more likely.
British health authorities have also issued a \u201cred heat\u201d health alert, for only the second time ever, warning of a risk to life even for the healthy. The country saw its hottest June day on record Wednesday, with a recorded high of 35.7 C (96.2 Fahrenheit) south of London.
The country\u2019s grid operator asked generators to make more power available amid soaring temperatures poised to break records later Wednesday. Train operators advised people to make only essential journeys, while hundreds of schools were closed or finished early.
The conditions were likely to persist at least until the weekend, the U.K.\u2019s Met Office warned.
It was a similar story in Germany, Austria and in Italy, where health officials have issued red warnings for 16 cities including the capital, Rome. Warnings were also issued for Milan, Turin, Venice and Florence.
In Switzerland, however, some regional authorities have come up with a novel way for people to beat the heat \u2014 free daytime screenings at air conditioned cinemas.
\u201cThe \u200bhotter \u2060it gets, the more \u200cthe cinema becomes a place of refuge,\u201d Laurent Dutoit, manager of three of the cinemas taking part, told \u200cReuters.
Around 650 people have taken \u200cup the offer since Thursday, he added.
Daniele Hamamdjian is an NBC foreign correspondent based in London.
Alex Holmes is a multimedia producer for NBC News based in London.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePARIS \u2014 France again shattered records for its hottest day ever Wednesday, with more brutal temperatures as a deadly heat wave scorches much of western Europe. Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.Thousands of \u200bhomes were hit by power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}