--- title: Summers Are Becoming Unbearably Hot Before They Even Start description: Countries around the world are recording extreme temperatures earlier in the year, expanding the increasingly dangerous heat wave season. canonical: https://time.com/6190496/heat-waves-summer-2022-starting-early/ author: Emily Barone article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-06-23T20:54:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:25:17.203Z article:section: Climate og:title: Summers Are Becoming Unbearably Hot Before They Even Start og:description: "It’s never been this hot so early in the year" og:url: https://time.com/6190496/heat-waves-summer-2022-starting-early/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6e8b610eecac00a/698a332286f68e10676f15ab/heat-wave-europe.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: FRANCE-WEATHER-HEAT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Summers Are Becoming Unbearably Hot Before They Even Start twitter:description: "It’s never been this hot so early in the year" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6e8b610eecac00a/698a332286f68e10676f15ab/heat-wave-europe.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Summers Are Becoming Unbearably Hot Before They Even Start > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=6683bac9-da42-488d-935c-f224226dfcbf&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) by [Emily Barone](https://time.com/author/emily-barone/) ## Emily Barone Jun 23, 2022 8:54 PM UTC  People cool off at a water fountain in Perpignan, a city in southern France on June 17, 2022, amid sweltering temperatures. People cool off at a water fountain in Perpignan, a city in southern France on June 17, 2022, amid sweltering temperatures. Raymond Roig—AFP/Getty Images by [Emily Barone](https://time.com/author/emily-barone/) ## Emily Barone Jun 23, 2022 8:54 PM UTC A heat wave topping 100°F set records in multiple European countries this past week. Similar temperatures hit northern China, as well as midwest and southern U.S. states. These sweltering temperatures are remarkable on their own. But what makes them more striking is when they’re happening. As a sobering reminder, it’s not July or August. It’s mid-June. And the summer season only officially kicked off on Tuesday. To illustrate what this early heat looks like in a historical context, we created a chart (below) that compares 25 years’ of daily high temperatures in June and July in Biarritz, a coastal city in southwestern France. As the heat moved through Spain and France, Biarritz was among the hottest cities on Saturday, June 18, hitting a high of 109°F. Prior to this year, the average maximum temperature for June 18 between 1997 and 2021 was 74°F, according to our calculations using historical temperature data from Weather Underground. Of course, one wildly hot day in a single city doesn’t prove global warming. But such days are becoming more common around the world—and are raising the average temperature patterns overall. What’s more, these heat waves are happening on the fringes of the hot season, causing longer summers with extreme precipitation conditions—[both more wet and more dry](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/24/climate/warmer-wetter-world.html)—around the world. In the U.S., for instance, the heat wave season has stretched from 22 days in the 1960s to nearly 70 days in the most recent decade. Persistent heat waves are dangerous; Spain and Germany [have been battling wildfires](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/spain-germany-battle-wildfires-unusual-european-heat-wave-rcna34353) amid the scorching temperatures, France [canceled outdoor festivities](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61838543) to limit heat exposure over the weekend, and Italy’s health ministry issued health alerts and emergencies for 18 cities between June 22 and June 24. --- **_A version of this story first appeared in the_** **Climate is Everything** **_newsletter. To sign up,_** [**_click here_**](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletters/?newsletter%5Fname=climate&source=onsite)**_._** --- Conditions on this side of the Atlantic are similarly alarming. In addition to the immediate risks of heat exposure, the [U.S. drought monitor](https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/) is currently showing extreme conditions across the West. Scorching temperatures [are killing cattle](https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105482394/cattle-kansas-heat-wave) and some states are [bracing for power outages](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/31/spiking-temperatures-could-cause-more-blackouts-this-summer-they-wont-be-the-last-00034858). And hotter nighttime temperatures are providing less relief to the oppressive days, which pushes average daily temperatures higher overall and impacts human health,[ including lost sleep](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/climate-change-may-affect-our-ability-to-get-a-good-nights-sleep-180980170/). London Meteorologist Scott Duncan, who posts climate facts and commentary on social media, made an [Instagram video parodying skeptics](https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ce%5FPFVNjwyt/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) who dismissed the European heat wave as normal summer weather. “We’re breaking all-time records in June. Does that mean nothing?” he asks, sardonically. “It’s never been this hot so early in the year. And we can’t compare this to July and August because it’s just not the same. 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