Key Points

• In mainland France, according to Météo-France, the summer of 2022 ranks as the second-hottest summer recorded since the beginning of the 20th century. The 2022 summer monitoring period was marked by three heatwave episodes, two of which placed departments along the Atlantic coast under a red alert, and two successive episodes lasting about a dozen days in the Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions. Furthermore, this summer was also marked by other extreme weather phenomena such as drought, wildfires, thunderstorms, and a heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea. Regarding health monitoring, key figures include:

  • An estimated 2,816 excess deaths (+17%) during heatwave periods in departments where biometeorological alert thresholds were exceeded. The summer surveillance period shows the highest excess mortality since the implementation of the National Heat Wave Plan in 2004. People aged 75 and older account for the vast majority of these excess deaths, associated with a high relative excess mortality rate of +20%.

  • 2,060 emergency room visits and 680 SOS Médecins consultations for hyperthermia, dehydration, and hyponatremia (iCanicule indicator) were observed in the departments where biometeorological alert thresholds were exceeded this summer.

• In Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the three heat waves occurred between June and August 2022 and resulted in biometeorological alert thresholds being exceeded in most of the region’s departments, with a red alert issued during the first two episodes. Seven departments in the region were affected by threshold exceedances during the first episode in June (16, 17, 33, 40, 64, 79, 86, 87), five during the second episode (16, 17, 19, 33, 79), and nine during the third (16, 17, 19, 33, 40, 47, 64, 79, 87). A health impact was observed among the population of Nouvelle-Aquitaine:

  • 436 excess deaths, from all causes, were estimated during heatwave periods in the departments where biometeorological alert thresholds were exceeded, representing a relative excess mortality of +18% [12%; 22%]. The majority of deaths occurred during the second episode and involved people aged 75 and older.

  • During the heat waves, 978 emergency room visits (63.9% of which were followed by hospitalization) and 376 SOS Médecins calls for iCanicule were recorded. Use of emergency care accounted for up to 0.9% of daily emergency department visits and 1.2% of daily SOS Médecins calls during the first episode in June, which was early and intense, below the levels observed during the heatwave summer of 2019. Emergency room visits primarily involved people aged 75 and older, while SOS Médecins calls primarily involved people aged 15–74.