It is only June, and Europe is already baking through its second extreme heatwave in two months. Temperatures have topped 44 degrees Celsius in parts of the continent. Heat alerts are now in place for several countries, with six at the most severe red level.

France placed 72 of its 96 departments under red alert, and at least 40 people have drowned trying to escape the heat.

In Spain, temperatures peaked at 45.1°C, with 101 heat-related deaths in May alone, the highest ever recorded for the month.

The UK broke its all-time June temperature record. Cities are closing schools, power grids are buckling, and hospitals are reporting a surge in heat-related emergencies.

None of this should have been a surprise. Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at roughly twice the global average, and scientists have been warning for decades that human-made climate change would make extreme heat more frequent and more severe. Current projections expect the next five years to shatter even more records, making this the “new normal”.

The summers European residents grew up with no longer exist, and extreme heat is no longer an anomaly, but the new baseline. This means the question now is no longer whether extreme heat will return, but whether European cities can survive it.

A climate disaster that........

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