Climate change increases heat-health risks from 2026’s May and June heatwaves
Author(s)
Type
Report
Abstract
Climate change added between 3-4°C to maximum temperatures and is estimated to be responsible for about 42% of the deaths across both heatwaves.
More than 2,700 people are thought to have died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales. Of those, it’s estimated that 42% died as a result of the extra heat caused by human-induced warming.
Researchers from Imperial College London, the Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine used historical mortality records and established peer-reviewed methods to model fatalities during both heat spikes. As Scotland and Northern Ireland were not impacted by such extreme temperatures, they focused on England and Wales.
More than 2,700 people are thought to have died from heat-related causes during the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales. Of those, it’s estimated that 42% died as a result of the extra heat caused by human-induced warming.
Researchers from Imperial College London, the Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine used historical mortality records and established peer-reviewed methods to model fatalities during both heat spikes. As Scotland and Northern Ireland were not impacted by such extreme temperatures, they focused on England and Wales.
Date Issued
2026-07-13
Citation
2026
Publisher
Grantham Institute, Imperial College London
Copyright Statement
©2026, the authors. Produced for the Grantham Institute, London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine and the Met Office. This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives 4.0 licence. This licence permits all or part of the work to be copied and shared with others, provided that the original authors and source are credited. The full licence is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Subjects
climate change
health
heatwave
Publication Status
Published