Record heatwave grips Europe, triggering red alerts and power cuts
A severe heatwave is moving across western Europe, with forecasters and authorities reporting record or near-record temperatures from France and the UK to Italy, Poland and the Balkans. Italy declared red heat alerts in 16 cities including Rome and Milan on Wednesday, hundreds of British schools planned early closures, and Poland’s weather service warned its 1921 national record could fall.
In northwestern France, a heat-related fault at a transformer in Finistère cut power to tens of thousands of households on Tuesday evening, with up to roughly 106,000 customers affected at the peak. The episode illustrates how sustained extreme heat strains the grid precisely when cooling demand is highest, and stresses infrastructure not built for these temperatures.
Heatwaves of this intensity arriving early in the season are consistent with the broader warming trend, and the cascading effects — grid failures, school closures, health risks for vulnerable people — are the practical consequences emergency planners now have to manage more often. Some relief is forecast in parts of the continent by Friday.