Highest Temperature Ever Recorded in Each EU Country

Key Takeaways

• Italy holds the EU’s highest confirmed heat record. It reached 48.8°C at Floridia in August 2021. 
• The EU’s ten hottest records all belong to Mediterranean or Balkan countries. The four lowest belong to Ireland, Estonia, Denmark, and Finland.
• A record-breaking heatwave in late June 2026 pushed six EU countries past their previous highs within four days. Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia all set new national records between June 27 and June 30.
• Ireland holds the EU’s lowest record. The country’s hottest temperature was 33.3°C at Kilkenny in 1887. It is the only EU record set before the 20th century.
• Europe has had its ten warmest years on record since 2000. It is heating up faster than any other continent. That pace of warming explains why so many national heat records have fallen within the same few years.

Highest Recorded Temperatures Across EU Countries

Stay tuned!

Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

Stay tuned!

Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

In August 2021, a heat dome trapped hot, dry air from the Sahara over southern Italy for more than a week. Meteorologists nicknamed it Lucifer. On August 11, the temperature at Floridia in Sicily hit 48.8°C. It is the highest ever measured in the EU.

Italy’s heat is not an outlier. The next nine highest records all belong to Mediterranean or Balkan countries. They range from Greece’s 48.0°C down to Croatia’s 42.8°C.

Southern Europe sits close to the Sahara Desert. Winds regularly carry hot, dry desert air north across the Mediterranean. The sea itself has also been running warmer than usual in recent years. Together, these conditions push temperatures higher across the Mediterranean and Balkan countries than anywhere else in the EU.

A Heatwave Broke Six National Records in Four Days

A record-breaking heatwave in late June 2026 pushed six EU countries past their previous highs within four days, from June 27 to June 30:

• Denmark: 37.0°C, June 27
• Germany: 41.8°C, June 27
• Czech Republic: 41.9°C, June 28
• Poland: 40.5°C, June 28
• Slovakia: 41.0°C, June 29
• Hungary: 42.0°C, June 30

A ridge of high pressure settled over the continent that week. Meteorologists call this pattern an omega block, since it traces the shape of the Greek letter Ω on weather maps. A low-pressure system sat to the west. Another sat to the east. Together, the two lows boxed in the high-pressure ridge between them. That trapped hot, dry air from North Africa in place for days. It was the same pattern behind Italy’s 2021 record.

Heatwaves like this are becoming more frequent, not rarer. Europe is warming at about 0.5°C per decade over the past three decades. That is almost twice the global average. It is the fastest pace of any continent. The ten warmest years on record for Europe have all occurred since 2000. That trend makes heatwaves like the one in June 2026 increasingly likely to happen again.

Ireland’s Ceiling Has Barely Moved Since Victorian Times

Ireland’s record sits at 33.3°C. It is the lowest of any EU country and the only one set before the 20th century. Kilkenny recorded the reading on June 26, 1887.

In 2025, scientists re-examined the original 1887 measurement and its old instruments. The number still stands. Some doubts remain about how accurate that old equipment was.

The Atlantic Ocean keeps Ireland’s summers markedly cooler than the rest of the EU.

That geographic divide between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic has held for more than a century. What keeps changing is how often the ceiling gets tested. Six new national records fell in a single four-day span in 2026. The EU’s climate record had never produced that before.