A deadly heatwave that saturated hospitals across western Europe began shifting east on Friday, as authorities in France, Britain and the Netherlands reported emergency services stretched to breaking point. At least 101 million people endured temperatures above 35°C, and several hundred deaths are suspected, many from drowning as people sought relief in unguarded waters. French officials described a “dramatic” toll of 55 drownings, while Spain’s mortality monitoring system linked 212 deaths between Sunday and Wednesday to the heat.

Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group released a rapid analysis concluding that the record-breaking temperatures would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change. The study found that the heatwave, the most severe ever recorded in the region, made stifling night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than two decades ago. Daytime highs in June would have been 3.5°C cooler in 1976, the researchers noted. The event was driven by an Omega block, a weather pattern that traps a dome of hot air over the continent for extended periods.

France imposed a rare ban on public alcohol consumption in Paris to reduce hospital admissions, as emergency room visits for heat-related illness quadrupled and cardiac arrests surged. In Germany, extreme heat buckled the surface of the A2 motorway, damaging 30 vehicles and injuring two people. Britain’s Met Office extended a red heat alert for a third consecutive day—an unprecedented step—while the Netherlands issued its first-ever nationwide code red. Cultural landmarks closed, schools shut, and air-conditioning sales boomed across a region where only around 20% of households have cooling systems, according to International Energy Agency data.

With temperatures expected to ease in the west, the focus turned to Italy and eastern Europe, where forecasts pointed to 40°C readings over the weekend. The immediate milestone is the heat’s eastward march and the capacity of health systems in those regions to cope. Longer-term, the episode exposes the vulnerability of northern European infrastructure designed to retain heat, not repel it, and intensifies pressure on governments to accelerate adaptation measures as the climate crisis deepens.