Soaring Temperatures in Austria: Record-breaking High of 35 Degrees Hit
Austria is gearing up for a peak day in its current heatwave cycle, with temperatures expected to soar to around 34°C on Thursday, July 3, 2025. The country has been experiencing extreme heat conditions, following record-breaking hot days in 2024 and ongoing heat waves in 2025.
Hundreds of heat alerts are active across Austria, signalling severe heat stress, particularly in urban and eastern regions. The eastern parts of Austria, including Burgenland, Lower Austria, and Vienna, have experienced some of the highest heat indices with many hot days and tropical nights. Vienna alone recorded an average of nearly 50 hot days and over 40 tropical nights recently.
Several communities in Austria have already exceeded the 30-degree mark by 11:30 AM, including St. Andrä in Carinthian Lavanttal, Leibnitz in Styria, Graz, Güssing in Burgenland, and Pottschach in Lower Austria.
The extreme heat is taking a toll on vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, pregnant women, chronically ill individuals, and others. Heat stress impacts are particularly severe in districts with a higher share of older residents, such as Carinthia and Burgenland.
To combat the heatwave, recommendations include avoiding direct sunlight, staying off sealed surfaces, shifting sports and physical activities to early morning hours or evening, wearing light, loose clothing, sun hat, and sunscreen, drinking at least 2-3 liters of water daily (unsweetened tea or diluted fruit juices), avoiding alcohol.
Online retailers are experiencing a boom in the sale of mobile climate equipment due to the heatwave. In Italy, online food delivery services are booming, with around 60,000 deliverers working for food delivery services.
The heatwave has also caused significantly higher electricity prices due to the throttling or shutdown of nuclear power plants in France and Switzerland. Switzerland's Beznau nuclear power plant is being partially shut down due to the heat, with one reactor shut down and the second running at 50 percent capacity.
In Austria, the city of Cologne discovered a defect in heating bodies in classrooms after receiving a storm report about excessively high temperatures. Vienna Lines, the operator of public transport in Vienna, has a low likelihood of boarding a public transport vehicle without air conditioning (1 in 4). All buses in Vienna are equipped with air conditioning, while two-thirds of the underground lines are.
As the heatwave continues, Austria is facing a potential risk of severe heat stress across large parts of the country. Key vulnerable groups should take extra precautions to stay safe during this period. Western Europe can expect a gradual cooling from Wednesday following the multi-day extreme heat wave.
- The ongoing heatwave in Austria can be attributed to the field of environmental science, as it falls under the broader umbrella of climate-change studied in general-news.
- The excessive heat waves engulfing Austria, particularly in regions like Carinthia and Burgenland, are contributing to a surge in the demand for mobile climate equipment, turning it into a hot product in the market.
- While the country grapples with the current heatwave, the focus remains on optimizing protection strategies for vulnerable groups, including the elderly, children, pregnant women, chronically ill individuals, and others, in the context of the practice of scientifically informed decision making in the environmental-science domain.
