LONDON, Sept 1, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Britain and Belgium both recorded their 
hottest ever summers, the two countries' weather agencies announced Tuesday, 
the latest temperature records to be smashed in Europe this year.

In the UK, it was the second consecutive year that the average summer 
temperature broke the previous high, with 2026 seeing successive heatwaves 
and minimal rainfall, prompting widespread drought conditions.

Belgium also experienced several heatwaves since June and was hit by its 
largest wildfire in a century in August as it chalked up its hottest summer.

Temperatures in the official national reference station in Uccle, outside 
Brussels, averaged 20.3 C -- 2.4 C above the mean of recent decades -- the 
Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) said Tuesday.

"This represents an all-time record (based on observations dating back to 
1833) and marks the first time this average has exceeded 20 C," it added.

Scientists warn that climate change is making extreme weather events more 
intense and resulting in heat records tumbling with increasing frequency.

Some 33 countries, spanning from western Europe to the Sahel and central 
America, recorded their hottest July since records began this year, according 
to AFP analysis of data from the European Union's Copernicus climate 
observatory.

All-time temperature records were also broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech 
Republic, Slovakia and Hungary earlier in the season.

Exceptional summer heatwaves have been linked with thousands of excess deaths 
across Europe.

Spain registered more than 5,000 heat-related deaths from June to August, 
data from a public health institute also showed on Tuesday, a record since 
the start of its statistics in 2015.

May and June heatwaves led to an estimated 2,877 excess deaths in England, 
according to the UK's Health Security Agency, almost double the tally of the 
whole of the summer in 2025.

- 'Human-induced' -

In its announcement Tuesday, Britain's Met Office said "summer 2026 is 
provisionally the UK's warmest summer on record with the season's mean 
temperature made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate 
change".

The UK measured an average temperature of 16.5C between June and August, 
breaking the previous record of 16.1C set in 2025.

The extreme weather has left three-quarters of England and all of Wales 
officially in drought, as rainfall was reduced to a trickle.

"These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the 
influence of human-induced climate change," said the Met Office's Amy 
Doherty.

"Particularly notable is how much we've exceeded the previous summer mean 
temperature record, set just last year."

Met Office meteorologist Mark McCarthy noted "a summer like this would be 
exceptionally unlikely" in a climate unaffected by human emissions of 
greenhouse gases.

Climate experts have warned the UK government that Britain is not ready for 
the consequences of climate change, with homes and public infrastructure not 
built for warmer, drier summers.

"Climate projections indicate that UK summers will continue to become hotter, 
a trend already evident in the observations," the Met Office added.