France‘s Hottest Summer on Record
LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP
The fire in Aude, photographed on August 6, 2025, could become a common event in the coming decades across France.
A heat wave – and sadly, the story remains the same year after year. France experienced its third-hottest summer on record in 2025. Two intense heat waves at the end of June and again in mid-August caused widespread suffering,according to a report from Météo France,released this Tuesday,September 2. This is further proof of the “climate and ecological emergency,” noted Minister of ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
During the summer of 2025 (June-July-August,according to Météo France),the average temperature across the country was 22.2 degrees Celsius, 1.9 degrees higher than normal. Only the summers of 2003 (23.1) and 2022 (22.7) were hotter. Météo France also reports that temperatures exceeded 35 degrees Celsius on more than 80% of the country this summer. temperatures even rose above 40 degrees Celsius in over 20% of France.
the June heat wave, “remarkable for its duration and early arrival,” was particularly extreme, with average temperatures 3.3 degrees above normal. The August heat wave, 1.4 degrees above average, was “very intense in the southern half of the country,” causing significant natural disasters. In total, France experienced 27 days of heat wave conditions, which is “the second-highest number on record, behind the summer of 2022.”
Fires Will Affect the Entire Country
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