Most often, people aged 85 and older died from heat in Germany this year.
The number of premature deaths in Germany related to heat in 2026, as of August 2, was around 12,500. This is according to the latest weekly report from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), published on Thursday, writes Deutsche Welle.
Scientists note that this estimate is conservative, meaning that in reality the number of heat-related deaths could be even higher.
The RKI also notes that this is a record figure for the last 10 years. Previous peak years were 2018, when approximately 9,400 people died from heat in Germany, and 2019, when this figure was around 7,700.
According to statistics, extremely high temperatures most severely affected residents of the western states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, where 43.4 and 38.7 people per 100,000 residents, respectively, died due to heat. The national average is 15 deaths per 100,000 residents.
By age, the most frequent victims of heat in Germany this year were people aged 85 and older — accounting for approximately 6,300 cases. More than 3,100 heat victims were between 75 and 84 years old.
A new heatwave has now arrived in Germany, but it is weaker than the one at the end of June — when the thermometer rose above 40 degrees Celsius in many regions of the country. According to RKI estimates, about 5,100 people died from the June heat in Germany. Overall in Europe during that month, at least 12,000 excess deaths may have occurred, the AFP agency calculated.
June and July 2026 proved to be the hottest months in Western Europe in recorded history. The average temperature for this period exceeded the analogous indicator for 1991–2020 by 2.79 degrees Celsius, reported the European climate change service Copernicus.
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Тут сёньня +22С° і многія мерзнуць !