France Experienced its “Hottest Summer on Record”

France experienced “the hottest summer on record since measurements began in 1900”, with three heatwaves and record temperatures exceeding 40°C

Three heat waves with abnormally high temperatures between June and August. An unprecedented number of days when Météo-France stations exceeded 40 °This is the case drought, the heatwave… “We experienced the hottest summer on record since measurements began in 1900”, the Minister of Ecological transition, Monique Barbut, taking stock of the summer (which runs from 1st June to the 31st August for meteorologists).

“Summer 2026 will go down in history, but the question we need to ask ourselves is how it will stay that way”, she asks. “Like the first in a long series that will continue to break records. Or as a moment that will have allowed us to rise to the challenges of adaptation and mitigation. “That is to say, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Measures announced at the end of September

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu tasked her at the end of July with presenting new measures to “accelerate” the implementation of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change. She promised conclusions “by the end of September”, with a 5-year financing plan. “We will not have renovated all the schools by next summer”, but “we can at least have shutters and air fans installed there”.

“Similarly, we will not have diversified the species of all our forests by the next heatwave. But until then, we can imagine quick solutions to facilitate access for firefighters”, she adds, promising announcements on this subject in mid-September. The country suffered extreme fires during this period, like the one which devastated part of Gironde. At the end of August, forest fires had already burned six times more areas compared to the average of the last twenty years. “