This free resource lets you turn that moment into a proper geography lesson without losing an evening to planning.

When a record-breaking heatwave gripped Europe in June 2026, the easy reaction was “it is just summer”. This lesson uses the event to teach something more important: the difference between weather and climate, how a “heat dome” of high pressure can park over a continent and bake it for days, and why a warming climate is making heatwaves like this hotter and far more likely.

It includes a PowerPoint presentation that explains what is happening, where and why, with the impacts, the responses and the climate-change link, plus built in retrieval and multiple choice questions. There is also a Word document worksheet with a map task, a sort the impacts activity, a “find the latest figures” research task, key vocabulary and an extended question. Because the figures update as the story develops, students check live data from reliable sources themselves.

Topics covered:

• Weather versus climate, and what a “record” temperature really means
• How a “heat dome” and a blocking “omega block” jet stream cause prolonged extreme heat
• Why Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and how climate change loads the dice
• The impacts of extreme heat (health, wildfires, drought, transport and energy) and how people adapt
• France and Spain as short case studies
  Also suitable for KS3 and GCSE/IGCSE Geography, AP Environmental Science, AP Human Geography, World Geography, and any weather or climate unit at ages 13 to 15.

Format and compatibility:
Delivered as PowerPoint (.pptx) and Word (.docx) files. Everything is fully editable, so you can adapt it to your class in minutes.

This is a free Geography in the News resource. Explore the rest of the free series and a library of interactive activities at . If you find this useful, a review would mean a lot. It is how other teachers discover these resources, and it helps me keep creating.