Europe had over 62,700 heat-related deaths in 2024, report finds

More than 62,700 people died in Europe from heat-related causes in 2024, according to research published in Nature Medicine on Monday, with women and the elderly representing the largest part of the death toll. Researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, known as ISGlobal, who obtained daily mortality records from 32 European countries, estimated over 181,000 people died from heat-related complications over the summer months of 2022 to 2024. Between Jun 1 and Sept 30, 2024, the mortality rate rose by 23 percent from the same period a year earlier, although the number of deaths was still just below the 67,900 deaths recorded in 2022, the first year of the study. "This number is saying to us that we...