An extreme heatwave across Europe is testing public-health systems, transport networks and energy infrastructure, with UK forecasters maintaining a red extreme heat warning and international meteorologists warning that records are falling across the continent.

The Met Office said its extreme heat warning was active for much of southern and central England and Wales, with amber warnings extending into Friday and Saturday for some areas. The agency said the warning had been updated on Thursday after record-breaking June temperatures were forecast and observed.

The World Meteorological Organization said on 25 June that national meteorological services and partners were mobilising heat-health action plans as a record-breaking late-June heatwave affected millions of people in Europe. The agency pointed to knock-on effects for infrastructure, agriculture, ecosystems and economic activity.

The immediate risks are familiar but serious: dehydration, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, worsening heart and respiratory illness, pressure on hospitals and risks for older people, outdoor workers, young children and people in poor housing. The wider consequences are now equally important. Railways can slow or suspend services, roads soften, schools and workplaces alter schedules, electricity demand rises and river temperatures can affect power generation.

Live reporting from the region described school closures, transport disruption, pressure on hospitals and temporary curbs around nuclear generation in France as river temperatures rose. Heat-related death figures in Spain, Italy and France are also being treated as provisional because official mortality assessments often lag weather events by days or weeks.

The deeper story is adaptation. Europe has built many of its cities, homes and public systems around a climate that is changing faster than infrastructure can be upgraded. Dense urban neighbourhoods retain heat overnight. Many homes lack cooling or shading. Hospitals, care homes and transport systems must operate at temperatures for which they were not originally designed.

Climate scientists have repeatedly found that heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as the planet warms. A single event requires attribution analysis before scientists can quantify the role of climate change, but the risk profile is already well established: hotter baseline temperatures make record heat more likely and make dangerous heat episodes last longer.