It was the hottest June ever recorded in the Netherlands (and the rest of Europe was even warmer!)

I’m sure that steamy Saturday this past weekend made sure that the temperature record for June in the Netherlands was broken. However, in many countries, previous records have already been surpassed before the weekend.

Temperature records across Europe

In the Netherlands, the average temperature for June was 18.1C. The prior record was established in 1976, and matched in 2017, was 18C. A northeast wind prevented temperatures getting too hot, but in other parts of Europe, a dry south wind blew dry air from the Sahara.

Last week in Berlin, Vienna, Innsbruck and most of Southern Germany, temperatures sat around 37C. In the South of France, a record of 45.9C was measured in Montpellier.

The following picture comparing the heat in France to Edvard Munch’s The Scream was popular across social media.

A gauche carte des températures à 1500m prévues par GFS. A droite le cri de Munch.
Jamais vu ça en 15 que je regarde des cartes météo #canicule pic.twitter.com/RIJTXiCUh1

— Ruben H (@korben_meteo) June 20, 2019

Authorities across Europe implemented heatwave plans, urging people to stay indoors or under shade and drink lots of water.

Deadly heatwaves?

Heatwaves can be deadly when the temperatures dramatically increase before people have adjusted to seasonal norms, so yeah, this month was risky. In 2003, an estimated 70,000 were subject to premature deaths due to a European heatwave.

The World Meteorological Organisation reported that there is a strong link between early summer heatwaves and greater impacts on mortality.

Feat pic: Digi Khmer – DutchReview Group