A punishing heatwave sweeping across Europe has pushed Hungary to its hottest temperature ever recorded, while also driving the country’s summer electricity consumption to a new high — part of a wider pattern of broken records stretching from Germany to the Mediterranean.
Hungary breaks its all-time heat record
On Tuesday, the national absolute heat record was broken in Hungary, the meteorological service HungaroMet announced. The previous hottest day had been recorded in 2007, when temperatures reached 40.7 degrees Celsius (105.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in Budapest and 41.9 degrees in Kiskunhalas.
On Tuesday, however, 41.0 degrees were measured in the capital and 42.0 degrees in Szécsény. Temperatures could climb even higher in these areas, as the heat did not subside during the day, and more precise data may follow. Prime Minister Péter Magyar also responded to the news, promising an announcement on his social media page about the records.
Electricity consumption hits a summer high
The heat has also strained the power grid. The load on Hungary’s electricity network reached its highest point of the summer on Friday, June 26, surpassing last summer’s consumption peak — though the absolute summer record set in 2024 has not yet been broken, the grid operator Mavir announced Monday in response to an MTI inquiry.
According to Mavir data, Friday saw the year’s highest summer gross peak system load during a roughly 15-minute window around 7:15 p.m., reaching 6,788 megawatts (MW), with an average daily temperature of 29.1 degrees Celsius. Last year’s summer peak was also measured on June 26, when the maximum reached 6,766 MW at an average daily temperature of 30.3 degrees.
Hungary’s absolute summer peak to date was registered on July 16, 2024, when system load hit 7,036 MW. Winter consumption peaks are generally higher, though the summer peak has occasionally exceeded the winter maximum — in 2015, for example, the summer peak was 6,457 MW versus a winter peak of 6,447 MW. The highest value ever measured in Hungary came on Jan. 13 of this year, when system load reached 8,182 MW, Mavir said.
Germany shatters its all-time national record — twice
Hungary is far from alone. In Germany, the heatwave broke the country’s all-time national temperature record on consecutive days.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), 41.7 degrees Celsius were recorded at the Neißemünde-Coschen station in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg on Sunday at 3:10 p.m. — the highest since measurements began in the 19th century. That broke a record set only the day before in Möckern-Drewitz, Saxony-Anhalt, while the night leading into Sunday was also the warmest on record.
The extreme heat has caused real damage
On several motorways, including parts of the A2, the asphalt buckled, and a section of the A2 near Burg in Saxony-Anhalt had to be closed for heat damage before reopening. Earlier in the heatwave, a preliminary national record of 41.3°C had been reached near Saarbrücken on Friday, before Germany’s weather service issued extreme heat warnings for nearly the entire country and urged people to conserve water.
Europe cooks
The records were not confined to Germany and Hungary. From late May 2026 onward, Europe was struck by severe heatwaves, with temperature records broken in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
In France, Météo-France said June 23 was the country’s hottest day since measurements began in 1947, with temperatures reaching 44.3°C. The U.K., meanwhile, broke its June temperature record on three consecutive days.
The human toll has been severe, with more than 1,300 deaths reported across Europe as temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the continent. However, many of these deaths were due to drowning. In Germany alone over the weekend, there were 28 drowning deaths as people flocked to lakes and rivers to cool off, with every single victim a male.
