The heat wave currently hitting Western Europe left heat records on Tuesday in 64 towns in France, where several fires are still active, indicated the Météo France meteorological service.
The new local historical highs were recorded mainly on the Atlantic coast, in western France, such as in Biscarrosse (42.6ºC) or on the island of Noirmoutier (39.7ºC).
“The day clearly went according to plan.. Unfortunately, it was expected,” Matthieu Sorel, climatologist at Météo France, told AFP.
Brest, in the far west of France, registered 39.3ºC on Monday, breaking the previous record of 35.1ºC from August 2003. “More than four degrees in Brest is colossal,” stressed the specialist.
The current national record of 46ºC was recorded in 2019 in Vérargues (south).
The heat wave is the second recorded in less than a month in Europe. PFor scientists, the multiplication of these phenomena is a direct consequence of climate change.
In France, it has been accompanied for a week by two gigantic fires near Bordeaux (southwest), which have already burned 19,300 hectares of vegetation and forced 34,000 people, tourists or locals, to abandon their homes.
One of these fires, near the touristic Dune of Pilatdestroyed five nearby campsites and also forced the evacuation of animals from the Bassin d’Arcachon zoo.
A total of 363 of the 850 have already been transferred to a park in Bordeaux, indicated the Ministry of Ecological Transition, specifying that “a dozen animals” perished from heat and stress.
A man was arrested on Monday for the other fire, the one in Landiras, and, according to sources from the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office, He was already questioned in 2012 for similar suspicions, in a case that ended up shelved.
