Records Broken

Already 30 degrees in the morning: Will today break the heat record?

These were the day’s heat hotspots in Austria.(Bild: Diverse Fotografen honorarfrei)

August 4, 2026, has gone down in history. All of Austria was seeking relief from the heat; record-breaking temperatures were recorded, particularly in the eastern part of the country, and the highest alert level was declared. Emergency responders were called to numerous fires. Read on to find out what else happened on what has been the hottest day of the year so far. 

Even though the record-breaking temperatures subsided on Tuesday, we’ll still be sweating it out over the next few days. TheHeat Check shows where it could get particularly hot this week:

The most important news about the heatwave in a nutshell:

• InVienna-Stammersdorf, temperatures reached 41 degrees at 3:10 p.m.—breaking yet another heat record in the capital after Monday’s high.
• Fire alarms were sounded in Esslinger Furt and the Lobau , and a firefighting helicopter from the Ministry of the Interior had to be dispatched. 
• Ared heat warningwas issued forTuesday and Wednesdayfor Vienna, the Weinviertel, northern Burgenland (including Seewinkel), the Vienna Basin, and the city of St. Pölten.
• Eastern Austria was at the center of Europe’s heatwave on Tuesday. The Austrianall-time temperature record(40.5 degrees in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg in 2013) was tied.
• By late Tuesday afternoon, the high temperatures had dropped slightly. The night is expected to be dry, with light winds and a clear, starry sky across the country—with temperatures ranging from 15 to 26 degrees Celsius.