Austria Records 41°C for the First Time
Central and Southern Europe hit by unprecedented heat and drought disrupting agriculture and daily life.
Central and Southern Europe hit by unprecedented heat and drought disrupting agriculture and daily life.
Europe continues to swelter under a record-breaking heatwave. On Tuesday, August 4, 2026, Austria recorded a temperature of 41.0 degrees Celsius for the first time in the history of official measurements, while Spain declared its hottest and driest summer since meteorological records began.
The unbearable heat peaked at the Vienna-Stammersdorf measuring station, where a new national record was measured in the afternoon. According to data from the meteorological service GeoSphere Austria, the temperature first reached 40.8°C at 2:40 PM, before quickly rising to 41.0°C. This broke the previous record of 40.5°C, held by the Bad Deutsch-Altenburg station in the east of the country since August 8, 2013.
The record temperatures are just the peak of an extreme summer. Austria has already experienced its longest heatwave ever recorded in June, with temperature records surpassing previous ones by an average of 1.4°C. July was marked by unprecedented drought, with rainfall deficits reaching as high as 90% in some places.
The impact of global warming is also dramatically affecting vegetation cycles. For instance, apricot ripening began about twenty days earlier than the average recorded from 1961 to 1991. People whose livelihoods depend on normal weather conditions are also feeling the consequences on the ground.
"This weather is a catastrophe," Nasir Dis, a 60-year-old restaurateur from Vienna, told AFP. "No one wants to sit down at a table. All we want is to barricade ourselves at home."
Meanwhile, even more dramatic figures are coming from the Iberian Peninsula. Spain is experiencing its hottest and driest summer on record. During June and July, average temperatures were nearly 3°C above normal. Spain's environment minister stated on Tuesday that rainfall levels have dropped to their lowest since measurements began.
Although sources do not fully agree on the precise maximum temperature in Austria, with some citing 41.0°C and others 40.8°C, both values exceed anything this Alpine country has ever officially recorded. This situation vividly illustrates the scale of the climate crisis that is not letting up across the continent this summer.
