The China Mail - Record number of locations in France top 40C over summer: AFP analysis

Some 573 of the 1,300 stations studied, all of which have been operating since before 2000, reached or exceeded 40C at least once across a sweltering summer marked by widespread drought and devastating wildfires which scientists have linked to global warming.

That tally far exceeds the 292 stations which broke that milestone during the heatwave summer of 2003 and the 394 measuring hubs to have done so in 2019.

Temperatures reached 40C for the first time since records began at more than 80 stations.

They include Strasbourg's two stations at Entzheim and the Botanical Garden, which have been operating since the 1920s in the city, home to 500,000 people.

Stations in the cities of Metz, Alencon, Mulhouse and Tarbes also exceeded 40C for the first time this summer.

Large parts of the central departments of Indre and Haute-Vienne crossed the threshold, with some stations hitting record high temperatures for several consecutive days.

The Indre village of Neuvy-Saint-Sepulchre, with a population of 1,600, had never previously experienced temperatures of 40C.

Its weather station, in operation since 1909, hit the mark seven times between June 21 and 29, peaking at 41.8C. Temperatures rose again to 40.4C on August 13 and 14.

The weather station in the village of Pruniers, less than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Neuvy-Saint-Sepulchre, has been operating since 1942, and before this year had recorded just seven days above 40C -- in 2022 and 2025.

In 2026, it recorded 18 such days, including seven consecutive days in late June, two of them at 45C.

None of the 1,300 stations studied has ever recorded as many days of extreme heat in a single summer since the available data began in 1950.

Across all of those stations, temperatures of 40C or above were recorded on a cumulative 2,153 station-days in 2026, smashing the previous record of 966 in 2003.

U.Chen--ThChM