Extreme heat broiling Europe has led to thousands of excess deaths and an extreme risk of wildfires across Spain, Portugal, and France. In Britain, the national weather agency estimated more than 2,700 people in England and Wales died from heat-related causes, with climate change responsible for 42 percent of those deaths.

France reported about 1,000 excess deaths in late June, while Germany estimated about 5,100 heat-related deaths during its June heat wave, noting that temperatures of this intensity had not previously occurred in the country. Clair Barnes, an expert at Imperial College London, stated that climate-change-fueled heat is claiming lives and disrupting infrastructure.

Dry conditions have accelerated wildfires, which already exceed annual averages. In Spain, a wildfire killed at least 12 people, with Deputy Prime Minister Félix Bolaños reporting that the fire sped across parched vegetation at rates of 328 feet per minute. Scientists emphasize that Europe has been the world’s fastest-warming continent over the last three decades, with heat waves becoming hotter, more frequent, and longer-lasting.