Europe’s first major heatwave of 2025 pushed air temperatures above 46 °C in parts of Spain and Portugal and to 40 °C in Germany, straining power grids, fuelling wildfires and cracking sections of Germany’s autobahn. Authorities have confirmed at least eight heat-related deaths so far; Portugal’s health directorate later reported 69 additional fatalities, bringing the continental toll to nearly 80. The extreme heat and accompanying drought have parched key waterways. Germany’s Rhine and Poland’s Vistula have fallen to unusually low or record levels, while the Danube in Hungary has dropped so sharply that cargo vessels are operating at only 30-40 % of capacity. Attila Bencsik of the Hungarian Shipping Association said freight surcharges could raise shipping costs by up to 100 % as operators leave more than half their loads on shore. Low water on the Rhine, a critical artery for German industry, is already hampering deliveries of fuel and raw materials. Hungary’s meteorological service HungaroMet said June rainfall was just 17 % of the monthly average, the driest since 1901, and warned that further heatwaves may arrive in mid-July. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service notes Europe is warming at twice the global pace, suggesting that such early-season extremes—and their knock-on effects on transport, infrastructure and public health—are likely to intensify.