European Heat Tracker Beta
More frequent and extreme heatwaves have real impacts on agriculture, infrastructure and people. Updating every 3 hours, our tool combines weather and population data to show how many people are affected by heat on any given day.
Data is updated every three hours using the DWD ICON-EU weather model and GHS-POP population data.
We likely underestimate affected people in cities due to the weather model missing urban heat islands, and in mountainous regions due to coarse terrain resolution.
Difference from average
vs 1961–1990 climate baseline (≈1°C cooler than today's normal)
61,672
excess deaths linked to heat across Europe during summer 2022
Ballester et al., 2023 — Nature Medicine →37%
of current heat-related deaths globally are attributable to human-caused climate change
Vicedo-Cabrera et al., 2021 — Nature Climate Change →+1.60°C
above pre-industrial average — 2024 was the first full calendar year to breach the 1.5°C threshold
Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2025 →Europe has already warmed approximately 2.2°C above pre-industrial levels — faster than any other continent. This makes extreme heat events more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting. With current policies putting the world on track to exceed 2°C of warming, heat extremes that once occurred about once a decade become 5.6 times more frequent than in the pre-industrial climate. Summer 2023 was the hottest European summer on record; 2024 was the warmest year globally.
Copernicus Climate Change Service · IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), 2021–2022
+5–10°C
hotter in city centres during heatwaves than the surrounding countryside. Standard weather models — including the one powering this tool — do not fully resolve this effect.
5.6×
more frequent: once-a-decade heat extremes at 2°C of global warming, compared with the pre-industrial climate
IPCC AR6 Working Group I, 2021 →Weather
DWD ICON-EU forecast model. 4× daily, ~6.5 km native resolution, fetched and processed here every 3 hours.
Population
GHS-POP R2023A (EU Joint Research Centre), 30-arcsecond density raster. Captures urban density patterns. 2020 baseline.
Counting rule
A person is "affected" if their grid cell exceeds the chosen threshold in any 3-hour snapshot within the selected period.
Weather: opendata.dwd.de · Population: ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu
Air temperature
Standard 2 m measurement. Simple and universal. Default threshold: 30°C.
Feels Like
Steadman (1994) apparent temperature — adds humidity and wind. Default threshold: 30°C.
UTCI
Universal Thermal Climate Index — adds solar radiation load. Moderate heat stress begins at 26°C.
Use the country selector at the top to focus the headline figures on any country
Switch the map view — difference from average, temperature, feels like, or UTCI heat stress
Click a country on the map for a national breakdown, or hover a cell for local detail
Hold Alt / Cmd / Ctrl + scroll to zoom the map
Found an issue, have a data suggestion, or want to collaborate? We'd love to hear from journalists, researchers and developers.
team@klimadashboard.org →Buildings without air conditioning or proper insulation trap heat — indoor temperatures can exceed outdoor readings by 5°C or more during a heatwave.
Community readings — last 24 h
100 readings
Ballester et al. · 2023
Heat-related mortality in Europe during the summer of 2022
Nature Medicine
Vicedo-Cabrera et al. · 2021
The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced climate change
Nature Climate Change
Copernicus C3S · 2025
Global Climate Highlights 2024
Copernicus Climate Change Service
IPCC · 2022
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (AR6 WG2)
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
EEA · 2023
Heat stress in Europe — UTCI days indicator
European Environment Agency
Bröde et al. · 2012
Deriving the operational procedure for the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI)
International Journal of Biometeorology