July heatwave causes 400 more deaths in Netherlands than average summer week

During the record-hot heatwave in the Netherlands in July this year, 400 more people died than in an average Dutch summer week, the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics CBS announced on Friday.

The nationwide heat wave in the Netherlands occurred from July 22 to July 27, a short but intense one with higher temperatures than ever measured in the Netherlands. For the first time the temperature in Netherlands rose above 40 degrees Celsius, with a record of 40.7 in Gilze-Reijen in the province of North Brabant on July 25.

A total of 2,964 people died in the Netherlands during that week. Earlier research by the CBS showed that high temperatures are related to increased mortality.

The CBS compared the figures with two heatwaves in July 2006. With a length of 16 days, the second heat wave of 2006 was one of the longest and most intense in at least a hundred years. During those heat waves in 2006, nearly as many people died each week as in the heat week of 2019.