People refresh themselves in the cool water of a fountain in front of the Cathedral at the Lustgarten park on Museum Island in Berlin on July 2, 2025, as temperatures were predicted to reach up to 37 degrees Celsius. Scientists estimated that rising temperatures from humancaused climate change were responsible for roughly 16,500 deaths in European cities this summer, using modelling to project the toll before official data is released.
the rapidly-produced study is the latest effort by climate and health researchers to quickly link the death toll during heatwaves to global warming — without waiting months or years to be published in a peerreviewed journal.
the estimated deaths were not actually recorded in the European cities, but instead were a projection based on methods such as modelling used in previously peerreviewed studies. Death tolls during heatwaves are thought to be vastly underestimated because the causes of death recorded in hospitals are normally heart, breathing, or other health problems that particularly affect the elderly when the mercury soars.