The impact of heatwaves intensifies. Final summer time, in France, 409 individuals died by drowningtogether with round twenty youngsters. Lots of them drowned on the finish of June, within the center heat wave early, in unmonitored rivers or our bodies of water. “Whereas the summer time of 2026 will undoubtedly be marked by episodes of extreme heatit’s essential to emphasise increased risks of swimming related to these climate circumstances,” declared Yann Le Strat, scientific director of Public Well being France, throughout a press convention.
To “reply to the brand new challenges of local weather change” and bear in mind these “more and more delicate climate circumstances” which lengthen the interval appropriate for swimming, and the place the dangers of drowning are elevated, the company has subsequently introduced that it’s going to begin its monitoring from Might 1. Its drowning studies can even be extra frequent. They are going to be printed all through the summer time interval, on July 11, earlier than August 15 and September 31.
Drownings up 14% between 2024 and 2025
From June 1 to September 30, 2025, 1,418 drownings had been recorded nationwide, of which 409 had been deadly. In complete, 57 youngsters and adolescents died and 21 younger individuals aged 13 to 17 misplaced their lives from June to September, in comparison with 10 in 2024, in keeping with the SpF report. Drownings and deaths are subsequently up 14% and 16% respectively in comparison with summer time 2024. Solely the proportion of grownup victims of drowning – primarily at sea – adopted by dying has remained usually secure.
A rise linked to the rise in temperatures. The summer time of 2025 ranks third among the many hottest summers since 1900, behind these of 2003 and 2022, in keeping with Météo France, and the month of June was the second hottest. In just below three weeks, 355 drownings, together with 106 fatalities, had been recorded within the nation, a soar of 135% in comparison with the identical interval in 2024.
Wild swimming deadliest
Almost six out of ten drowned miners had gone to swim in a stream, river or physique of water, lake or pond. Nonetheless, throughout “wild” swimming in a pure surroundings, “there may be present, variations in depth, temperature, a number of issues that may occur and result in drowning,” defined the director of SpF, Yann Le Strat. And the remoteness of those locations “delays the arrival of assist”.
The well being company has subsequently renewed its precautionary recommendation: don’t eat alcohol, discover out concerning the climate circumstances, postpone swimming in case you are drained, and swim in designated and supervised areas.
