The heat wave that has hit southern Europe for several days has caused high temperatures in Spain, Germany, Italy and France, a country where thermal marks exceeded 42 degrees, in addition to forest fires, a phenomenon that experts say could become commonplace due to climate change.
In France, almost the entire territory was affected with several departments of the Atlantic coast to the northeast and southwest under red watch and temperatures exceeding 42°C.
In Biarritz, one of the most coveted seaside resorts in the southwest, a record high of 42.9ºC was recorded, Météo-France said.
In Paris, the inhabitants turned to the city’s fountains, since it is forbidden to bathe in the Seine River, and in Bordeaux, a southwestern city where thermometers reached 40ºC, the museums, cooler, were free, according to the agency AFP news.
On Friday they were beaten in France heat records for June in at least 11 municipalities, including Carcassonne (south), where 40.4°C were reached.
The authorities took special measures in nursing homes, still marked by the deadly heat wave of 2003, which left more than 15,000 dead.
“This is the earliest recorded heat wave in France” since 1947, declared Matthieu Sorel, climatologist at Météo-France, who insists that it is a “marker of climate change”.
Me in haut du Tourmalet at 2115 m il fait chaud. Plus bas, à Barèges et Luz-Saint-Sauveur l’air is unbreathable, suffocant with a very unpleasant foehn. pic.twitter.com/gH0vDEAAIo
— Matthieu Sorel (@MatthieuSorel) June 18, 2022
Starting Saturday night, storms could occur on the French coast, which will allow a “progressive drop” in temperature, which would be confined to the eastern part, Météo-France reported.
In Spain, firefighters continue to fight several firesone of which has already devastated 20,000 hectares in the northwest, in what is expected to be the last day of the heat wave.
The most important fire forced the evacuation of hundreds of inhabitants from more than ten towns in the Sierra de la Culebra, a mountainous massif in the Castilla y León region, near the border with Portugal.
The fires also caused the closure of a highway and a high-speed train line between Madrid and Galicia (northwest).
Spain has been suffering from an exceptional heat wave for almost a week.
The heat wave reached GermanyTemperatures reached a record high of 36.4ºC in Waghäusel-Kirrlach in the southwest, according to the German Meteorological Institute (DWD).
The country is also suffering from fires, including one in Brandenburg, the region around Berlin where 60 hectares were burned.
United Kingdom does not get rid of high temperatures. Authorities recorded their hottest day of the year on Friday, with temperatures topping 30C in the early afternoon.
And in northern Italy, several cities announced water rationing. In addition, the Lombardy region could declare a state of emergency, as a record drought threatens crops.
“It is time to act, every action counts,” said the executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Ibrahim Thiaw, at a conference in Madrid.
