Extreme Heat Cancels London’s Conference: Here’s A History of Humanity's Deadliest Heat Waves
A History of Humanity's Deadliest Heat Waves
The Irony Heard Around the World
The Numbers Behind the 2026 Warning
A Pattern Stretching Back Centuries
One of Europe's Earliest Scorchers
1896: Ten Days That Shook the Northeast
1900: Argentina's Week of Fire
1901: A Catastrophe in the Eastern US
1906 to 1911: Britain's Deadly Run
1911: The Northeast Bakes Again
1913: Death Valley Earns Its Name
The Lingering Doubt Over That Record
1960: Australia Sets Its Own Record
1976: Britain's Endless Blue Sky Summer
1980: Heat, Drought, and a Hurricane
1987: Greece's Deadly Eleven Days
1988-1989: An Expensive American Heat Wave
1990: Another Record British Summer
1995 and 1997: Back-to-Back UK Heat Waves
2015: India's Deadly Heat
2015: Tragedy in Karachi
2016: Kuwait at the Extreme
2016: Iran Joins the Records
2017: China Sets a New Mark
2018: A Global Wave
2024: Tragedy at the Hajj
2025: Brazil, Pakistan, and a Brutal Spring
2025: America's Hottest Day in a Decade
2026: The Records Keep Breaking
2006: Europe Heats Up Again
2006: North America's Turn
2007: Southeastern Europe's Worst
2007: An Asian Heat Wave Too
2009: Australia Burns
2009: Argentina's Winter Heat Wave
2010: The Northern Hemisphere Swelters
2010: Pakistan Sets a National Record
2010: Eastern Europe Warms Up
2011: Records Fall in Southwestern Asia
2012-2013: Australia's Angry Summer
2013: British Columbia Burns
2013: Southern China Bakes
2013-2014: Argentina's Longest Heat Wave
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Here's something that sounds like a bad joke but actually happened: a London conference about coping with extreme heat got cancelled this week because of extreme heat. That's where we are in 2026. Heat waves aren't new, though, and they've been killing people and breaking records for centuries. From melted asphalt to summers that simply never ended, here's a long look back at the worst of them, and how we got to a present where the heat keeps writing new chapters.