More than 2,700 people may have lost their lives due to heatwave-related causes in Britain in May and June, according to expert estimates.

This figure, which comes from a team at Imperial College London, the Met Office, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is based on known data regarding the risks of extreme heat.

Most of the deaths occurred during the June heatwave, experts say. It was the hottest June ever recorded in England, when temperatures reached 37.7 °C in Lingwood, Norfolk, breaking the previous record of 35.6 °C set in 1957.

During those days, authorities had issued a rare red heatwave warning for parts of England and Wales, even for healthy people, according to the BBC.

Temperatures in May also reached record levels for the United Kingdom, hitting 35.1 °C at Kew Gardens on May 26, a significant increase from the previous record high of 32.8 °C, which was recorded in 1922 and tied in 1944.

The study uses mortality data from previous years to model or estimate how many deaths might have occurred in May and June 2026. It is based on assumptions about the extent to which people were affected by the heat, so the findings may not be verified.

Experts had believed that 2025 would be a very bad year in terms of heat-related deaths, but the number of deaths turned out to be much lower than expected —about half of the 3,039 that had been predicted.

Source: Protothema.gr