Why are heatwaves becoming more frequent in France? Unprecedented series of heatwaves raises questions

Despite a strong national attachment to rankings and medals, this is one podium France would have preferred to avoid. Between May and July, according to calculations by climate scientist Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, France was the most “abnormally” hot country in the world, with a temperature anomaly of 2.8°C – that is, the difference from the average recorded in the country between 1991 and 2020. France was followed in the rankings by Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain.

For the past three months, Western Europe has endured the most severe temperature anomalies on the planet. But it’s France that has led the way. By mid-August, against a backdrop of unprecedented agricultural collapse, at least 120,000 hectares of forests and vegetation had burned, 40% of monitored small rivers had experienced flow interruptions and an unprecedented number of nuclear reactors were shut down. On Thursday, August 13, France entered the 17^th day of the summer’s third heatwave – one of the three longest since recordkeeping began in 1947. How can this accumulation be explained? To what extent does the summer of 2026 foreshadow future summers? These questions are on everyone’s mind.

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