A second person died while working in Spain due to the current heat wave, and in France they recorded the “hottest day” that left historical temperature records in towns in the west of that country. While in the United Kingdom a record heat is expected with temperatures above 40 degrees, the local emergency and meteorological services indicated this Monday.
Spain
The heat wave has already claimed the lives of at least 360 people in Spain, according to estimates from the Carlos III Health Institute, and the country is in red alert for temperatures that could reach 42 degrees this Monday.
The second person who died in Spain “while working” was an employee in his 60s who was in the Madrid region when he was the victim of heat stroke linked to extreme temperatures at his workplace, services reported on Monday. of emergency.
According to a spokesman for the emergency services, the victim fainted on Friday afternoon when he was working with other colleagues in an industrial warehouse in Móstoles, in the Madrid region, amid very high temperatures, the AFP news agency reported, but The case was reported this Monday.
“When (the rescuers) arrived, I was having a seizure” and had a body temperature “of 42.9 ºC”explained the spokesman. The person died the night of Friday to Saturday in a Madrid hospital.
This success raised to two the number of people killed in the capital region while working in the prolonged heat wave that began more than a week ago, the agency added.
On Sunday, a 50-year-old man died of heat stroke in Torrejón de Ardoz, on the outskirts of Madrid, in similar circumstances. “The Labor Inspectorate is investigating what happened” in relation to the death of the Madrid municipal worker on Saturday, tweeted the Labor Minister, the communist Yolanda Díaz.
“You have to check why the measures were not put in place (…) to prevent this type of accident,” he added.
In the interior of Guipúzcoa, the thermometers will rise this Monday to 41 degrees, while on the Cantabrian side of Navarra and the interior of Vizcaya they will reach 42.
France
Meanwhile, France recorded this Monday the “hottest day” of the current heat wave, which left historical temperature records in towns in the west of the country, indicated the Météo-France meteorology service.
Thermometers reached 39.3 ºC in Brest, in extreme west; more than four degrees higher than the previous local record of 35.1 ºC from August 2003; 39.5ºC in Saint-Brieuc; 42ºC in Nantes; and 42.6 ºC in Biscarrosse in the southwest, according to the provisional values at 3:00 p.m. from those locations (12:00 p.m. from the City of Buenos Aires).
“Particularly intense heat is expected,” François Gourand, meteorologist for Météo France, told the AFP agency on Monday.
Temperatures could be between 38 and 40 degrees in much of France and, according to this meteorological service, “some areas of the southwest” could experience “a heat apocalypse” with up to 44 degrees.
the heat wave It is the second registered in less than a month in Europe, in full summer tourist campaign.
UK, Portugal and Belgium
A heat record is expected with temperatures above 40 degrees, for the first time in its history. The current record is 38.7 degrees on July 25, 2019.
“Hotter than the Sahara”, headlined this one the tabloid The Sun, while schools in various areas of England closed and, due to possible heat disturbances, several train companies called not to travel this Monday and Tuesday.
The British authorities decreed the highest level of alert, on 4due to the risk that even young and healthy people run, while advising to hydrate, avoid sun exposure and monitor vulnerable people.
In Portugal a cooler Monday is expected, ending a heat wave of more than a week, after beating his temperature record on Thursday for a month of July, with 47 degrees registered in the north.
In Belgiummeteorologists announced the orange alert throughout the country due to the expected heat wave in the kingdom and the dry weather.
While temperatures above 40 are expected, the Belgian National Railway Company SNCB reported its plans to cancel around thirty trains during the hottest days, the Sputnik agency reported.
climate change factor
According to Gourand, from Météo France, the issue of climate change “is advancing in society” due to the intensification of these phenomena and added that “people are increasingly aware (…) The time has come to take political action.”
Heat waves, rains and floods attributed to global warming have caused damage estimated at more than 80,000 million euros (about $81 billion at current exchange rates) in Germany in recent years, according to a study published today.
According to research by the Ministries of the Environment and Climate, the heat waves and exceptional droughts of the summers of 2018 and 2019 caused damage in the country valued at 35,000 million euros and the floods of July 2021 cost more than 40,000 million.
To this are added some 5,000 million euros for damage caused by strong storms, according to a statement quoted by AFP.
“The climate crisis is causing us enormous damage and costs in Germanyas the terrifying data shows,” said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, stressing: “We must, and will, invest more to better protect the population,” she concluded.
