Climate 2026: Record Heat, Tens of Thousands Dead, Mass Evacuations

Episode 389

Europe is burning through another summer of extreme heat. Temperatures are soaring across the continent, wildfires are forcing mass evacuations in France and Spain, and scientists warn that heatwaves are becoming more frequent, more intense and longer-lasting as the climate warms.

The fires are changing too. Hotter, drier conditions are creating larger and more destructive wildfires. Some are even generating their own weather systems, pyrocumulonimbus thunderstorms, in regions we’d never seen before.

Find out what is driving Europe’s escalating heat and wildfire crisis, and whether district cooling networks could help cities stay livable in a much hotter future.

Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet are joined by Alec Luhn and Michael Le Page.

To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/

Image credit: Death Valley: Mikenorton, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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