The hidden consequences of marine heatwaves: rising Vibrio risk in European coastal waters

It is becoming alarmingly easy to grow accustomed to an unrelenting succession of broken climate records. June 2026 was the warmest June ever recorded in Western Europe, with mean temperatures reaching 3.06 °C above the 1991–2020 average and surpassing the previous record set only a year earlier.1 While prolonged terrestrial heatwaves dominate public attention, because of their immediate impacts on human health, they often overshadow equally profound changes occurring in the oceans. During the same month, the western Mediterranean Sea and adjacent Atlantic coastal waters experienced a record-breaking marine heatwave.