France Confirms 5,764 Excess Deaths From June Heat Wave, Worst Toll Since 2003

The number is now official: 5,764

Since Public Health France first flagged roughly 2,000 excess deaths for the week of June 22-28 at the height of the heat wave, the agency has now finalized a much larger count. On Wednesday it confirmed 5,764 excess deaths between June 17 and July 2, according to Santé Publique France, the country's public health agency.

The math: France's affected regions recorded 21,674 deaths from all causes during that window. Based on historical modeling, the agency expected 15,910. The gap, 5,764 deaths, is 36% above normal. This is the highest excess mortality from any heat wave in France since 2003, when roughly 15,000 people died.

Who died, and when

Adults 75 and older made up about two-thirds of the toll, more than 3,700 excess deaths. Just over half of all the extra deaths happened in a single three-day stretch, June 25 to 27, which lines up with France's hottest days on record. The national average hit 86 Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) on June 24 and 25, with peak temperatures topping 104F (40C) in many regions, according to the agency.

The Paris region got hit hardest: 1,999 excess deaths, roughly 80% above what would normally be expected. Nearly half the deaths nationwide occurred in hospitals dealing with surges of heat-related patients. About a third happened at home. The rest were mostly in nursing homes, according to the Associated Press.

Paris funeral directors said they ran out of room to store bodies before burial or cremation, with some mortuaries turning bodies away, the AP reported.

Important caveat: Santé Publique France says these are deaths from "all causes" during the period, not deaths formally attributed to heat. Final, more complete figures won't be published until autumn. Courthouse News noted the same framing and pointed out that last year France recorded 5,722 excess deaths from June through mid-September, a comparable total spread over a much longer stretch of summer. This year's toll came in roughly two weeks.

The wider picture: fires, drought, a resignation drama

This was France's third heat wave since May, part of a run of extreme weather scientists have linked to climate change, according to Courthouse News. A wildfire last week burned through roughly a tenth of the Fontainebleau forest outside Paris, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Two firefighters died in their vehicle fighting a blaze in Gironde, in southwest France, the Guardian reported. Authorities are urging people to avoid backyard barbecues during heat waves, noting nine out of ten fires start from human activity.

Spain is dealing with its own crisis. Firefighters have been battling one of the country's largest wildfires on record in the Guadalajara region north of Madrid, which burned about 32,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of 1,200 people from 34 villages, according to the Guardian. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain has already seen 22 major wildfires this year, four times the pace of last year, with more than 100,000 hectares burned, matching the whole-year average of the past decade. Spain's weather agency, Aemet, warned the fire danger remains "very high or extreme" with highs of 42-44C.

Separately, France's environment minister, Monique Barbut, briefly resigned Wednesday over a bill reintroducing two bee-harming pesticides that Parliament backed over her objections. President Emmanuel Macron declined to accept the resignation, citing the "urgency" of climate action, according to Courthouse News.

What's new

This isn't a new heat event. The heat wave itself, the Fontainebleau fire, and Europe's broader energy and agricultural fallout have already been covered. What's new as of Wednesday is the finalized, much higher death count from Public Health France, up sharply from the roughly 2,000 initial estimate for the peak week, plus the Guadalajara fire escalation in Spain and the Barbut resignation episode.

What's unresolved

The agency itself says these numbers aren't final. Autumn revisions could push the toll higher or lower once cause-of-death coding is complete. Experts, cited by the AP, caution that a lot of heat-related deaths never get formally recorded as heat deaths at all, meaning the true toll from this specific heat wave may never be fully nailed down. Whether France's hospitals, schools and elder-care facilities, many still without air conditioning, get retrofitted before the next heat wave hits remains an open question.