Germany, June 29 (v7n) - According to calculations by AFP, at least 130 million people across Europe—primarily concentrated in the central and eastern regions—are braced for scorching temperatures exceeding 35C on Monday. While this reflects a decrease from the 191 million individuals affected on Sunday, the heatwave remains widespread. Furthermore, maximum temperatures are projected to climb past 30C for more than 269 million people across the continent, excluding Turkey, which is down from 380 million the day prior.

This demographic and climate analysis was conducted by cross-referencing weather forecasts from Germany’s national meteorological service with 2025 population projections provided by the Joint Research Centre. The data reveals that a massive geographic stretch encompassing the Balkan nations and the territory surrounding the Carpathian Mountains will bear the brunt of Monday's extreme heat. This impacted zone includes nearly all of Hungary, alongside Serbia, Austria, Romania, Croatia, western Ukraine, and southern Poland.

Outside of Central and Eastern Europe, densely populated pockets of Southern Europe are facing similarly intense weather conditions. Approximately 30 million residents in Italy, with a heavy concentration in the tightly packed Po Valley, are expected to endure temperatures over 35C. Additionally, the southwestern portion of the Iberian Peninsula, an area historically accustomed to severe summer heatwaves, will also be heavily impacted by the ongoing weather system.

Meanwhile, Western Europe is experiencing a slight reprieve as the extreme heat begins to back away from mainland France. Despite the cooling trend, regional health and safety alerts continue to remain active across the country. This caution is due to the fact that an estimated three million French citizens are still trapped in areas where daytime temperatures are forecast to hit the 35C mark.

To calculate these massive population figures, AFP mirrors a specialized data methodology pioneered by the Austrian non-profit organization Klimadashboard. The system functions by overlapping local population densities with the comprehensive weather forecast model published daily at 0300 GMT by Germany's meteorological service. Under this tracking criteria, local residents are officially added to the heatwave count if the underlying model predicts that their exact geographic location will cross the 30C or 35C thresholds at any hour of the day.

However, environmental data specialists note that these final population estimates are conservative. David Jablonski, a representative from Klimadashboard, explained to AFP that because the weather model operates on a grid resolution of roughly 6.5 kilometers, it is unable to accurately capture localized urban heat-island effects. Because metropolitan areas often trap significantly more heat than their surrounding rural counterparts, the organization's "European Heat Tracker" acknowledges that the data likely underestimates the true number of city dwellers suffering through the heatwave.

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