Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
Thirteen Italian regions have banned outdoor working during the hottest parts of the day; June temperature records have been smashed in Spain and Portugal; and schools in parts of France have been closed, as an extreme heatwave continues to grip large swathes of Europe.
England also reported the hottest day of the year (15:06), and the warmest June since records began in 1884 (16:01).
Local authorities have come up with a number of creative ways to support people in dealing with extreme temperatures, with free guided tours, museum access and “climate oases” (17:00).
But the United Nations’ weather and climate agency said the world will have to learn to live with heatwaves, which may become more intense and occur more often in the future (16:13).
Elsewhere:
Poland will introduce temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania from Monday amid growing tensions over irregular migration, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has said (12:23, 13:08).
European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will travel to Washington tomorrow hoping to strike a tariff agreement in principle with Donald Trump’s team (15:51).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. Stay cool, and see you again tomorrow.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Europe gets creative to beat the heat
Agence France-Presse looked at creative ways in which some European countries are trying to beat the heatwave, helping most vulnerable groups deal with the temperatures.
And so, it noted that Italy’s Venice is offering free guided tours of air-conditioned museums and public buildings to people over 75, while in Rome, city swimming pools are free of charge for those over 70.
In the Netherlands, schools in Rotterdam and across West Brabant province adopted “tropical schedules” on Tuesday, with shorter school hours – 8:00 am to noon – and additional water breaks.
Meanwhile Austria is offering 23 “climate oases” with air conditioning, snacks and drinks for those in need, sponsored by Catholic charity Caritas, which is also providing dedicated medical buses with volunteer doctors.
In France, some cities, such as Orleans, are also offering free access to museums.
Marseille made its public pools free of charge for the duration of the heatwave, AFP noted.
Your heathwave experiences in France
People in France have been getting in touch with their experiences of the heatwave.
Nora, who lives in a flat in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda in southern France, was without air conditioning as temperatures climbed to 42C over the weekend.
“It’s common not to have air conditioning in the region,” she says.
“The heat was so bad this past weekend we were worried about our dog, Pearl.
As a precaution, we drove about an hour away to rent a pet-friendly hotel room for the weekend – just to sleep in the air conditioning and get out of the heat. The dog was thrilled.”
Nora has since returned to her apartment for the week, although the temperature is still 41C.
“We never have the lights on; we have the shutters partially closed. We have fans in front of it. We keep cold towels in our freezer and have those draped over us.
It’s really just the poor dog – she doesn’t really want to eat. It’s just so hot for her, so we keep her in cooling baths.”
With the heat showing no signs of abating, she plans to find another hotel to stay in next weekend.
“We’ve made plans to do the same thing in a different city. We’re kind of combining hiding from the heat with some local travel and exploration.
But it’s not sustainable to go to a hotel all the time. We’re fortunate that we can – I know that’s certainly not available to everybody.”
In Verdets in south-western France, Charlotte Blythe, 76, says the last two weeks have been “difficult”.
“We do any physical jobs such as gardening, housework, and dog walking before 10am at the latest,” she says.
“The house is put in the dark as we close the shutters or pull down the blinds. You are always thirsty, you have no appetite, as the heat builds, your energy diminishes. The fans are on for hours.
The worst time is at night. We sleep separately during this heat. Our dog Ruby is 12 and she’s a curly coated retriever, so she has a thick coat, and we just make sure that she’s got plenty of water. We let her lie in the shower.”
Blythe has lived in the area for 20 years.
“I would say the first 10 years were fairly sort of constant in the summer – you knew what was coming.
Over the last 10 years, it’s accelerated. We bought a mobile air conditioning unit two years ago. This [heatwave] is demanding because it’s come quite early in the year, and we know that we’ve still got the height of the summer to come.”
How are you being affected by the heatwave?
We would like to hear from people in the south of Europe who are experiencing high temperatures. How are you coping and what steps are you taking to deal with high temperatures? What is your home and working environment like?
Updated
World will have to learn to live with heatwaves, UN says
The world will have to learn to live with heatwaves, the United Nations’ weather and climate agency said Tuesday, as much of Europe roasted in high summer temperatures, AFP reported.
The World Meteorological Organization said that in future, people could expect heatwaves to occur more often and be more intense because of human-induced climate change.
WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said July was traditionally the hottest month of the year in the northern hemisphere, but it was exceptional, though not unprecedented, to have episodes of extreme heat this early in the summer.
She said extreme heat was “widely called the silent killer”, with the death toll often under-reflected in official statistics.
“It’s important to stress that every single death from heat is unnecessary: we have the knowledge, we have the tools; we can save lives,” she said.
England saw warmest June since records began in 1884 - Met Office
Provisional Met Office figures, released on Tuesday, show England had its warmest June on record last month, while the UK experienced its second warmest since the series began in 1884 – only surpassed by June 2023, PA news agency reported.
The hot weather marks the second heatwave for parts of the UK within the last month, with scientists warning the searing temperatures earlier in June were made 100 times more likely because of human-caused climate change, it added.
Earlier today, Spain (13:22) also reported its warmest June ever.
Updated
EU hopeful about securing tariff deal with US
in Brussels
European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will travel to Washington tomorrow hoping to strike a tariff agreement in principle with Donald Trump’s team.
He will meet trade representative Jamieson Greer with hopes rising they will have enough in the coming days to agree the basics ahead of 4 July Independence Day negotiations.
At the same time the EU recognises the volatility on the US side and are working to avert any further threats of tariffs that Trump may like to announce to extract more concessions from the EU. He recently warned tariffs on pharma were coming “very soon”.
If an agreement in principle is struck, talks would then continue, possibly beyond 9 July, to work out the detail.
This would follow the pattern in the UK which took more than a month to get to a final text.
Yesterday Šefčovič revealed it was a good time to get down to “drafting” an agreement and “drafts of proposals for the eventual agreement in principle”, a significant change of language which suggests they close to settling differences on major issues.
EU sources confirm the European Commission is now putting all its efforts into a “quick deal” rather than hold out for a deep and wide one covering up to 1,000 product lines.
This follows criticism by German chancellor Friedrich Merz last week that the EU’s approach to the talks was too complicated.
Germany’s priority is to get the 27.5% tariffs reduced or eliminated on car exports and the same for steel exports which are facing 25% tariffs.
The Baltic states, in particular, area also keen to build on the humouring of Donald Trump at last week’s Nato summit and want to ensure everything is done to keep him on board with weapons supply in Ukraine.
Sources say the EU is more or less resigned to a 10% blanket tariff on exports to the US remaining and may offer more imports on semiconductors to sweeten the deal.
However there remain worries that Trump could yet announce tariff on pharma exports as part of his negotiation tactics to extract more from the EU.
An EU technical delegation flew to Washington on Monday, ahead of Šefčovič ’s visit with expected meetings with commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who looks after sectoral deals, and with Greer.
With the clock ticking down towards Trump’s self-imposed deadline for a deal of 9 July, there is still plenty of room for a change of mood in the Oval Office.
Overnight Trump expressed frustration over Japan trade negotiations on Monday with treasury secretary Scott Bessent warning that countries could be notified of sharply higher tariffs as a 9 July deadline approaches despite good-faith negotiations.
Speaking on Monday in Brussels, Šefčovič told reporters:
“9 July is around the corner. So for me, it’s always a good sign when we kind of move from, I would say, exchange of views, into the drafting process.”
“As you know, we received first drafts of proposals for the eventual agreement in principle we are working on that.”
He added the EU was pushing for a deal that “was fair for both sides”.
Updated
Germany braces for 'Bettina' and 40 Celsius temperatures on Wednesday
in Berlin
The hot weather front known in Germany as Bettina is expected to have the nearly entire country in its grip by Wednesday, with temperatures shooting toward the 40-degree Celsius mark and only the coasts and Alpine peaks spared the scorching temperatures.
Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany’s most populous state, issued early warnings to the population to take precautions for extreme heat.
The all-time high temperature record for Germany of 41.2 degrees, measured in NRW on 25 July 2019, was seen as not out of reach this week, until summer storms forecast for the end of the week provide relief.
Industry groups warned that schools, elderly care homes and hospitals were ill-prepared for the heatwave - an urgent issue they said must be addressed as the frequency of life-threatening weather increases.
“Strong heat is a challenge for clinics and staff. Due to a lack of investment, few hospitals have air-conditioned rooms, offices and break rooms,” the head of the German Hospital Association, Gerald Gaß, told the daily Rheinische Post.
Social welfare advocates also called for better training for caregivers to help cope with the heat and recognise signs of distress.
Anja Bensinger-Stolze of the GEW teachers’ union said schools needed immediate stopgap measures to limit sun exposure in classrooms and courtyards and provide free drinking water and first aid measures in case of sun stroke, in an interview with the RND media group.
Rising temperatures are taking an increasing toll on Europe’s top economy as well.
The number of sick days linked to extreme heat has risen steadily since 2015, and surged 12% from 2018 to 2023, when 92,700 days were registered. Men reported significantly more sick days than women, particularly among those working in strenuous jobs outdoors such as construction.
The opposition Greens joined the far-left Linke in backing the creation of a legal right for employees to time off work due to extreme heat, similar to the rules enforced for school pupils.
Employers who fail to guarantee a workspace temperature below 26 degrees should forfeit the right to demand staff labour, according to a motion from the Greens parliamentary group seen by RND.
German weather station records all-time rainfall low for first half of 2025
A key weather station in Germany has likely recorded an all-time rainfall low for the first half of 2025, meteorologists say.
The weather station on Telegrafenberg in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, shows the first six months of the year were the driest since measurements began in 1893, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
The station is a central reference point for comparing long-term weather trends, the institute said, as it is the only meteorological station in the world with a comprehensive measurement programme that has been running continuously for over a century.
Its scientists said just 146.8 millimetres of rainfall fell from January to the end of June this year, even less than the previous record of 158.5 millimetres over the same period in 1942. The long-term average is around 300 millimetres.
Peter Hoffmann, a meteorologist at the institute, said forests were particularly affected by the long periods of drought.
“The damage caused in recent years is clearly visible in many regions of Germany and has not yet been repaired, and the renewed dry spell is exacerbating the problems,” he said.
“In addition, the higher temperatures have led to higher water requirements for vegetation and the landscape. This is because the average temperature in Germany is now around 2C higher than it was 100 years ago.”
England sees hottest day of 2025 with 33.6 Celsius, could reach 35 Celsius
The heatwave is set to peak in the South East with temperatures projected to reach up to 35C making it the hottest day of the year so far, PA news agency reported.
Much of England has been issued with warnings of extreme heat this week as Monday brought the hottest start to Wimbledon on record.
The Met Office said temperatures could reach 34-35C in London on Tuesday, before cooler conditions sweep in from the North later in the day.
It is the second heatwave for parts of the UK within the last month.
Separately, BBC reported 33.6 Celsius in Frittenden, Kent, making it the hottest day of the year.
Updated
Portugal recorded highest ever June temperature of 46.6C
Portugal recorded its highest-ever June temperature of 46.6C on Sunday, the national weather service said, reported by AFP.
The scorching high was registered at Mora about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Lisbon.
The previous June high of 44.9C was recorded in 2017 in the southwestern town of Alcacer do Sal.
The weather service added that 37% of its monitoring stations recorded temperatures higher than 40C on Sunday.
Updated
Spanish authorities are investigating whether a street sweeper’s death over the weekend in Barcelona was caused by an intense heatwave gripping the country and region, the city council said, reported by Reuters.
The woman, who had been cleaning the old town in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon, died later that day at home, her sister told the Antena 3 TV station.
Reuters reported that her sister said the 51-year-old woman, identified just as Montserrat, had told a colleague she thought she “was dying”.
Temperatures reached 30.4C (86.7F) in Barcelona on Saturday, weather agency AEMET said.
Reuters noted that extreme heat can kill by causing heatstroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people being among the most vulnerable.
The city council said on Monday it would investigate the woman’s death.
Greece not seeing mercury hit record highs this heatwave
in Athens
But while western and central Europe sizzle, Greece is not seeing the mercury hit record highs – even if it’s still very hot.
After high temperatures nudging 40 Celsius over the weekend, north westerly winds have brought much-needed respite to Athens.
Though, at 38C, temperatures have risen slightly again today and tavernas and eateries in the ancient Plaka district had fans on full blast, tourists were relieved that at least they were not experiencing the sort of heat recorded in Portugal.
“It’s great that it’s windy,” said Noelia sitting with her partner Pablo under the shade of mulberry trees and a giant palm.
“We’re from Asturias in northern Spain and we’re not used to such heat. We’ve heard that by the time we go back on Wednesday its going to be raining there and we’re happy!”
Greek authorities were forced to open air-conditioned facilities for elderly and vulnerable as the mercury climbed over the weekend. People were also banned from working outdoors.
Civil protection officials say their greatest fear is wildfires with fire fighting services placed on alert.
Updated
June 2025 'smashed records' on temperature, Spanish meteo agency says
still waiting for his delayed train in Seville
The Spanish state meteorological agency, Aemet, said in a social media update that “June 2025 smashed records” when it comes to high temperature, with an average temperature of 23.6 Celsius, 0.8 Celsius above the previous hottest June in 2017.
The monthly average was also 3.5 Celsius higher than the average over the period from 1991 to 2020, it said.
The agency’s comments come just days after Spain’s highest ever June temperature of 46 Celsius was recorded in the Huelva province of Andalucía.
Let’s now check for the latest on extreme weather warnings across the continent and how countries are dealing with the heat.
Poland's Tusk criticises Germany's migration policy shift, reintroduces border controls
Here’s more from Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk on the decision to introduce temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania, effective from 7 July.
The decision was made after a government meeting this morning with the Polish Border Guard, which requested the measure in response to significant protests at Poland’s borders over the weekend.
In his remarks at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, Tusk blamed Germany for the move.
He said “the way operations are conducted at the Polish-German border has clearly changed over the past month,” as Germany “has effectively begun refusing entry to migrants who are heading to Germany to apply for asylum or other forms of protection.”
He argued that the recent policy shift – combined with unilateral border controls with all neighbouring countried introduced by Germany – has placed undue pressure on Poland to accept individuals denied entry at the German border.
“This new approach is problematic: with no border checks on the Polish side, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine whether those being returned or redirected to Poland are in fact subject to such procedures,” he said.
Tusk added that he had spoken “several times” with Germany’s Merz, warning him that Poland’s “patient stance … was wearing thin.”
“We have been defenders of the Schengen Area and remain advocates of a Europe with open borders and unrestricted movement. However, such a system requires equal and symmetrical commitment from all neighboring countries.
Therefore, the temporary reinstatement of border controls on the Polish-German border is necessary to reduce, to the minimum, the uncontrolled flow of migrants crossing … the border.”
Tusk added that “the task of the Border Guard is to … block any unjustified or unauthorized returns of migrants by the German side if they happened,” and “in order to gain control over this process, border checks must be reinstated.” “There is no other way,” he said.
Tusk also pointedly warned Merz that if German government extends one-sided border controls in September, “contrary to the spirit of the Schengen Code and EU law,” Poland would retaliate with a similar move.
The time when Poland would not respond appropriately to such actions has definitively come to an end.
The Polish PM added that the move to introduce temporary border controls with Lithuania was directly linked to the German policy change.
He argued that with the Polish-Belarusian heavily militarised border fully closed to irregular migration, other neighbouring countries, Latvia and Lithuania, are now being used to explore alternative routes for irregular migration, entering the Schengen area through the Baltics.
As a result, he said, “the stream of illegal migration, orchestrated by Russia and Belarus, continues to flow through Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania – and Poland, after all, has an open border with Lithuania.”
Tusk also said he would work more closely with the Baltics to push the EU to act more decisively “to obstruct or prevent the operations orchestrated by Putin and Lukashenko, involving the organization of illegal migration and large-scale trafficking” into the EU in a bid to destabilise the bloc.
Merz was earlier asked about Poland’s growing criticism during a joint press conference with his Luxembourgish counterpart.
Speaking just minutes before Tusk announced Poland’s decision, Merz said he was aware of Polish concerns and repeatedly spoke with the Polish prime minister in recent days, with interior ministers also holding “a long telephone conversation” last night.
But he insisted that there were “no returns from Germany to Poland of asylum seekers who had already arrived in Germany.”
Instead he appeared to suggest that Germany simply exercises its right to reject people at the border.
Merz also said the two countries “have a common problem that we want to solve together.”
The German chancellor also told the press conference that:
“We naturally want to preserve the Schengen area, but freedom of movement in the Schengen area will only work in the long term if it is not abused by those who promote irregular migration, in particular by smuggling migrants.”
Updated
Poland introduces temporary border controls with Germany, Lithuania from Monday
We’re just getting fairly big news from Warsaw.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has just announced that Poland will introduce temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania from Monday amid growing tensions over irregular migration.
More soon…
Updated
French prime minister attends crisis meeting over heatwave
The French prime minister François Bayrou, who attended a government crisis meeting over the heatwave, was asked about the great difficulty of French schools to handle the heatwave.
More than 1,350 schools across France were fully or partially closed on Tuesday as classrooms proved dangerously hot for children and teachers, amid anger from teaching unions.
In Paris, which was on maximum heatwave alert, parents were advised to keep their children home on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some other towns closed all their schools, such as Troyes and Melun.
Bayrou said the education ministry would open talks with mayors on how to adapt school buildings, most of which are extremely poorly insulated.
Amid soaring temperatures on Tuesday, some Paris teachers had nothing more than a water spray on their desk to repeatedly spritz children in classrooms in the hope of keeping cool.
4.6 magnitued earthquake shakes area around Campi Flegrei supervolcano in Italy
Meanwhile in Italy, a 4.6 magnitude earthquake shook the area around the sprawling Campi Flegrei supervolcano in southern Italy on Monday.
The tremor, which was also felt in Naples, is the most powerful to affect the densely populated area in 40 years and was preceded in previous days by several smaller quakes. Trains were disrupted although damage from the quake, whose epicentre was close to the town of Bacoli, was minimal.
Seismic activity on Campi Flegrei, which is home to at least 360,000 people across seven of the most at-risk inhabited hubs, has intensified within the past three years, with the frequency and strength of the quakes increasing as the caldera, the basin at the top of the volcano, weakens and pressure beneath it builds. This causes the ground to rise and the volcano’s crust to stretch.
A small tremor in early June caused the partial collapse of a wall and a portion of a vault at the Pompeii archaeological site.
The Italian government has devised a mass evacuation plan, with test-runs held last year, Nello Musumeci, the minister for civil protection and sea policies, said on Monday that the problem was something the residents of Campi Flegrei “unfortunately have to live with”.
Brussels landmark closes early due to heatwave
in Brussels
Temperatures in Brussels could hit 38 degrees celsius on Tuesday, the national weather forecasters have said as part of an orange weather warning.
The landmark Atomium monument, consisting of large metal spheres representing atoms, will be closed from 14.30 “due to the heat and the structural limitations of the building”, it said.
It is the first time it has been closed since 2019.
Updated
Travel disruption in Seville after overnight power failure
in Seville
It’s already 34C in Seville this morning and the situation has been worsened for travellers by an overnight power failure that has severely affected service between Madrid and Andalucía.
The cause of the malfunction was unknown, a spokesperson for state-owned railway infrastructure operator ADIF told Reuters. The agency noted that a copper cable theft paralysed the same line for more than 12 hours in early May.
This is how things look as people wait for delayed trains at Santa Justa station.
A lot of blaring official convoys on the streets, too, as the great and the good make their way to the development financing summit here.
European heatwave - in pictures
Japan reports hottest June on record
It’s not only Europe: Japan experienced its hottest June on record, the weather agency said Tuesday, as climate change prompts sweltering heat waves across the globe, AFP reported.
“Japan’s monthly average temperature in June was the highest for the month since statistics began in 1898,” said the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The coastal water temperature near Japan also measured 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than usual, tying with June 2024 for the highest since data collection began in 1982, the agency said.
Many areas of southern, eastern England to see temperatures in 30s
More sweltering temperatures are also expected in southern and eastern parts of England on Tuesday, with many areas again passing above 30 Celsius with up to 36 Celsius expected locally, PA reported.
It comes after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) extended amber heat health alerts for much of the country into Wednesday morning.
Monday saw the hottest start to Wimbledon on record, with 32.9C recorded at nearby Kew Gardens, while 33.1C was recorded at Heathrow.
Updated
Paris-Milan high speed line suspended after violent storms
Train travel between France and Italy is suspended for “at least several days” after violent storms earlier in the week, French national operator SNCF said, AFP reported.
The storms on Monday in southeastern France have forced a clean-up operation during which SNCF will check there has been no damage to tracks on the Paris-Milan high speed line which would prolong the closure, it said.
Italy adopts measures to deal with heat
In Italy, some regions, including Lazio and Lombardy, adopted new rules seeking to protect workers from record temperatures, requesting a halt to outdoor activities on construction sites and quarries during the hottest hours, according to national media. Other regions, like Emilia Romagna, are about to adopt similar measures this week.
Elsewhere, in Genoa, free travel hours for senior citizens were extended to start earlier and encourage them to travel early before temperatures rise, Corriere della Sera reports.
Bologna authorities reported a 7% increase in the number of emergency calls.
Updated
Morning opening: It's hot (again)
Large parts of Europe are on extreme weather warnings again this morning as the first European heatwave continues, once again raising questions over public health, environmental hazards, and the impact of climate change.
Paris (38C) is on the highest, red alert with the top of the Eiffel Tower closed to tourists as a precautionary measure. The country’s prime minister François Bayrou – who is separately facing a vote of no confidence today, which he is expected to survive – has cancelled his meetings to monitor the situation in real time.
Other cities across the continent will also see higher than usual temperatures, including Zaragoza (39C), Rome (37C), Madrid (37C), Athens (37C), Brussels (36C), Frankfurt am Main (36C), Tirana (35C), London (33C).
For some, it will be the peak of the heatwave; for others – it’s only the beginning.
I will bring you all the latest updates from across Europe here as the continent battles the heatwave.
It’s Tuesday, 1 July 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Updated
