Discussed in the following Daily reports:
Material from: Linus, Ivan
Discussed in the following Daily reports: |
The late-June 2026 episode produced a remarkably broad cluster of national June maxima records across north-western, central and parts of southern Europe. The most striking feature is that several June records were not merely monthly records but new all-time national records: Germany, Czechia, Poland and Denmark, with Hungary possibly joining that category depending on final verification of the later 42.0°C report.
Below is a list of the maximum temperature records for June that was broken during the heatwave:
| Country / area | New record reported | Date / station | What was broken |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 37.7°C | 26 June, Lingwood / Strumpshaw Hill, Norfolk | UK/England June daily maximum record; previous UK June record was 35.6°C at Southampton in June 1976. The Met Office notes this was provisional. [metoffice.gov.uk] |
| Netherlands | 39.4°C | 26 June, Ell, Limburg | New national June temperature record; KNMI also issued an unprecedented red heat alert for parts of the country. [wmo.int], [nltimes.nl] |
| Switzerland | 39°C | Basel | New Swiss June temperature record. [wmo.int] |
| Austria | 40.0°C | Vienna City | New Austrian June temperature record. [wmo.int] |
| Germany | 41.7°C | 28 June, Coschen / Neißemünde-Coschen, Brandenburg | New German all-time maximum; since it occurred in June, it also supersedes the national June maximum. WMO notes Germany broke records on three consecutive days. [wmo.int], [dw.com] |
| Czech Republic / Czechia | 41.9°C | 28 June, Doksany | New Czech all-time maximum; also a June maximum. CHMI was cited as saying this was the first time 41°C had been registered in the official network. [brnodaily.com], [nampa.org] |
| Poland | 40.5°C | 29 June reporting for Słubice | New Polish all-time maximum; also a June maximum. The previous all-time record was 40.2°C from 1921; Słubice had already broken the June record the day before with 38.9°C. [polskieradio.pl] |
| Denmark | 37.0°C | Two locations, late June | New Danish all-time maximum, breaking a record from 1975; therefore also a June maximum. [wmo.int] |
| Hungary | at least 40.7°C | 28 June, near Budapest | WMO reported a new Hungarian June temperature record of 40.7°C, with further intensification forecast. Later reporting also mentioned 42.0°C at Szécsény on 30 June, but the WMO snapshot I found only explicitly supports the 40.7°C June-record value. |
For this long-lived and widespread event is it difficult to define a specific time-window and location.
The plot below show the evolution of the heatwave in terms of daily mean anomalies. Locations where observed values exceeded the 99th percentile of the observed 20-year climate are also indicated.
Observations and analysis for the event
The plot below shows the IFS-control forecast from 23 June 00UTC with hourly output (red) and observation from stations around Angers (France). The IFS forecast underestimated the diurnal cycle of the 2-metre temperature.
Control forecast (IFS 9-km resolution)
DestinE (IFS 4.4km resolution)
AIFS-single (AIFSv1.0 ~0.25 resolution)
AIFS-CRPS ensemble (~0.25 degree resolution)
EFI (based on IFS 9-km ensemble)
The plots below show the 3-day EFI for 2-metre temperature valid 23-25 June.
The plot below shows the evolution of 3-day mean temperature for Angers (0.5x0.5 degree box centred on 47.5N, 0.6W) in western France valid 23-25 June.
The plots below shows the same as above but for London-Heathrow. Here one can see how the forecasts got less extreme in the forecasts from 22 June (last day before the event). This might be related to the thunderstorms on 21-22 June, providing water to the soil.
Forecast Evolution plot
The maps below shows the verification plots for weekly 2-metre temperature anomalies for the week 22-29 June.
