France recorded 5,700 more deaths than usual during its historic June heat wave

PARIS, July 23, (AP): France recorded at least 5,700 more deaths than usual during a historic heat wave last month, the public health agency said Wednesday, sharply increasing its estimates of the feared toll from record-shattering temperatures. Public Health France said regions hit by the heat from June 17 to July 2 recorded 21,674 deaths from all causes.

But without a heat wave, those same regions would have been expected to have seen far fewer deaths, or 15,910, based on statistical modeling using data from previous years, it said. The difference between expected and actual deaths - a total of 5,764 - are therefore considered to be "excess” deaths during the heat wave, the agency said.

It said the excess mortality, with 36% more deaths that would normally have been expected, was the highest from any heat wave since 2003. A historic heat wave that year caused an estimated 15,000 deaths in France. France registered its hottest-ever days on June 24 and June 25 this year - with a national average of 30 C (86 F) - as well as record heat at night and peak temperatures that soared well above 40 C (104 F) in many places.

Just over half of the unexpected deaths occurred during and in the immediate wake of that hottest period, over three days from June 25 to June 27, the public health agency said. "This unprecedented episode, characterized by its early onset, intensity, and duration, exposed nearly the entire population to extreme heat during a period when school and work activities were still in full swing,” the agency noted.

All told, across Europe, extreme temperatures that hit exceptionally early and hard this year saw well over 10,000 more deaths at the height of the heat wave than would normally have been expected, according to figures that are still emerging across the continent.

In France, the Paris region appears to have been hardest hit, recording 1,999 unexpected deaths - around 80% more than would otherwise have been anticipated without a heat wave, the French health agency said. Funeral service directors in Paris said they struggled to find places to store bodies before burial or cremation, with some mortuaries saying they were full and having to turn bodies away.