A man and woman walk past the water stream of a sprinkler system at the WTA 500 Bad Homburg Open tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, western Germany on June 25, 2026. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
Berlin: A heatwave sweeping Europe was starting to peak in Germany on Thursday, with several open-air events cancelled and temperatures expected to top 40C through the weekend.
Large parts of the country are already under "severe to extreme heat stress" with temperatures soaring to around 37C, the German Weather Service (DWD) said.
In an unprecedented step, rail operator Deutsche Bahn warned customers to avoid travel and said it would refund any tickets booked up to June 30 due to a high risk of disruption from wildfires, heavy summer rain and thunderstorms.
Several open-air sports events have been cancelled, including a half-marathon in Hamburg where authorities cited the risk of "an increased demand for emergency and rescue services".
The mercury will rise further in Germany starting Friday and on Saturday, when almost the entire country is forecast to bake under temperatures of 35 to 41C.
Experts say the current German record for June of 39.6C, recorded in 2019 in Saxony-Anhalt state, could easily be broken over the weekend.
Germany's overall temperature record is 41.2C, recorded on July 25, 2019.
Germany is not prepared to cope well with extreme heat, Martin Herrmann, head of the German Climate and Health Alliance, told AFP.
"Although public awareness of the dangers of heat has clearly increased, Germany is still poorly prepared, or not prepared at all, for a heat-related disaster," he said.
Herrmann called for heat protection to be more firmly embedded in disaster and crisis management, "like flood protection".
Hot weather over the past week has already led to a spike in fatal swimming accidents.
