Key facts
- Germany is "insufficiently prepared" for extreme heat.
- Temperatures reached 41.7°C in Brandenburg during a recent heatwave.
- Roads and transport infrastructure, including motorways and tram lines, were damaged and closed.
- Hospitals and care homes are struggling to cope with the heat, with only a third of hospitals having air-conditioned patient rooms.
- Experts link the increasing frequency and severity of heatwaves to fossil-fuel emissions.
Germany is facing significant challenges in adapting to extreme heat, with officials warning the country is "insufficiently prepared" for such events. A recent heatwave saw temperatures soar to 41.7°C in Brandenburg, causing widespread disruption, including the closure of roads and damage to transport infrastructure like tram lines in Leipzig due to melted asphalt.
Tropical nights, where temperatures remain above 20°C, offered little respite. Across Europe, the World Health Organisation has recorded over 1,300 excess deaths linked to the heatwave since June 21. In Germany, large sections of motorways in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt remained closed due to heat damage to the road surface.
The German Medical Association had previously called for urgent measures to ensure hospitals, care homes, and doctor's surgeries can operate during extreme temperatures, noting that while most intensive care units are air-conditioned, only about a third of hospital patient rooms are. Experts have highlighted a lack of funding for cooling in these facilities.
Scientists attribute the increasing frequency and severity of heatwaves to climate change, with research indicating that current temperatures would have been "virtually impossible" just 50 years ago without the impact of heat-trapping gases from continued fossil-fuel emissions. Extreme weather researcher Dr Theodore Keeping stated that the speed of change is startling, with heat records being shattered in Europe every few years.