“…On a larger scale, from June to August 2003, the whole of Western Europe was struck by a series of heat waves. Excess mortality was observed in Portugal (+1,316 deaths) (Nogueira et al 2005), Spain (+6,595-8,648 deaths) (Simon et al 2005), Italy (in 21 cities: +3,134 deaths) (Conti et al 2005), England and Wales (+2,139 deaths) (Johnson et al 2005), the Netherlands (+1,400-2,200 deaths) (Garssen et al 2005) and Switzerland (+975 deaths) (Grize et al 2005). Therefore, the overall excess death count of the 2003 heat wave is higher if all Western European countries are considered from June to August.…”