VIENNA, Aug 30, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Austria saw its highest-ever recorded number of heat-related deaths this June and July, the country's health agency said Sunday, as Europe reels from a summer of brutal heatwaves.

The AGES agency said those two months saw 646 heat-related deaths, as compared to the previous high of 570 in June and July 2024.

The figures are calculated using a statistical model analysing excess mortality.

Scientific experts say that human-made climate change has made extreme weather events more intense and more frequent, and Europe has become the globe's fastest-warming continent.

Austria, like much of the rest of the continent, has seen records tumble in this summer's heatwaves and drought.

A new temperature record of 41.2C was set at Bad Deutsch-Altenburg in eastern Austria in early August, beating a previous high of 41C recorded in Vienna just a day earlier.