France records more than 2,000 excess deaths at peak of European heatwave

France recorded about 2,025 excess deaths at the peak of the heatwave that has swept across Europe, according to the BBC , as the continent braces for further bouts of extreme weather. Excess-death counts capture fatalities above the seasonal norm and are the clearest near-term measure of a heatwave’s human toll, most of it among older and chronically ill people.

The figure adds to a mounting European toll from a summer of record temperatures that scientists have linked to a warming climate. The pattern — more frequent, more intense and longer heat episodes — is the practical face of that shift, and it is straining health systems and power grids built for a cooler baseline.

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