Austria reached a record maximum temperature of 41.3 degrees Celsius in 2026, with Bad Deutsch-Altenburg hitting the peak on August 5. Wieselburg also recorded 40.3 degrees in July. The Agency for Health and Food Safety estimates 1,276 heat-related deaths.
The 2026 death toll surpassed the previous record of 989 set in 2024, significantly exceeding the 449 deaths reported in 2025. AGES researchers noted that 995 fatalities occurred between June and August alone, based on estimates with 95 percent certainty.
Environmental shifts are evident as a new inventory shows Austria lost 31 percent of its glacier area since the mid-2000s. Total ice surface dropped to 285 square kilometers, with 95 glaciers disappearing entirely and others losing over 80 percent area.