Parts of the world have been sweltering for days, with numerous May temperature records broken.
The town of Mora in central Portugal recorded its hottest May day ever on May 27, reaching 40.3°C — surpassing the previous May record of 40°C set back in 2001. Temperatures are expected to remain above 35°C for another day or two in parts of the country.
Across the border in France, government ministers convened to assess the country’s readiness for the heat wave. A plan was agreed upon on May 28 covering wildfire prevention and ensuring adequate water reserves through the summer. Some schools have already been shut due to the heat, though final exams will go ahead despite the conditions. One primary school in Souston, in southwestern France, recorded an indoor temperature of 53°C earlier in the week, according to a local official. Meanwhile, world tennis number one Jannik Sinner withdrew from the Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament, saying his body could not cope with the heat.
Italy’s capital Rome was placed under a red heat warning, with temperatures hitting 32°C on May 28, and the heat wave is expected to continue through the weekend. Germany and Switzerland have also been experiencing unusually high temperatures for this time of year.
France’s meteorological service described the cause as a “heat dome” sitting over Western Europe, producing temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Celsius above the May average. Parts of England reached above 35°C as early as May 26 — temperatures that would be remarkable even in midsummer, let alone spring.
“Absolutely stunning,” said Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at Imperial College London. “Staggeringly wild,” added Peter Thorne, director of the Icarus Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University in Ireland.
Scientists are in no doubt that human-caused climate change — driven primarily by the burning of coal, oil, and gas — has amplified the intensity of these heat events. Over the past 30 years, Europe has been warming at a rate of 0.56°C per decade, more than double the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Service. That may not sound dramatic, but the cumulative shift in baseline conditions is enough to make extreme heat events significantly more intense and more frequent.
“When we have a heat wave, it hits harder because it occurs on top of global warming,” said Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office and professor at the University of Exeter. “I have been working in climate science for 33 years and we are now seeing exactly what we warned about back then — though these records may be more extreme and arriving sooner than we expected.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, India is enduring its own brutal heat. In Delhi’s markets, the divide is stark: some shoppers browse air-conditioned stores while outside, street vendors and rickshaw drivers work under a sun pushing temperatures past 40°C.
Among them is 52-year-old Harish Chandra, who pulls his rickshaw through the city’s packed streets until the heat becomes unbearable. He washes at a public fountain and rests in whatever shade he can find.
“My body hesitates,” he says. Starting work around 9am when temperatures are still manageable, by midday conditions deteriorate sharply. “The sun is so strong that sometimes I feel my body giving out while I pedal. But if we stop, we don’t earn — and if we don’t earn, the family doesn’t eat.”
He has sent his wife and three children to their village in Bihar state, where the heat is just as extreme but the overcrowded slums and congested streets of Delhi make things worse.
Nearly 90 percent of India’s workforce is in informal or outdoor employment, leaving millions with no option but to endure the heat. Climate scientists warn that extreme heat seasons across South Asia are becoming longer, more severe, and less predictable as global warming intensifies — turning summer from a season into an annual battle for survival.
