The south of Europe suffocates on Monday under a persistent heat wave, which reached a “never seen” geographical magnitude in France and rages from the Balkans to England. She has resulted in record temperatures in Spain and the Mediterranean.
At 26.01 ° C on average, according to data from the European program Copernicus recorded on Sunday and analyzed by Météo-France, never the Mediterranean Sea had experienced such a high temperature on the surface.
And on Earth too, records have continued to fall since the start of this extreme heat wave during the weekend: Monday, maximum and minimum record temperatures for a month of June were noted in several Spanish stations, according to the AEMET weather agency.
Saturday, it is even an absolute record for the month of June which was recorded in Huelva, with 46 ° C, beyond the 45.2 ° C measured in Seville … in 1965.
In addition to hailstorms in places, in Portugal, the heat resulted on Sunday the formation of a rare phenomenon of “roller cloud” which amazed above certain portions of the coast. On images broadcast on social networks, we see a huge horizontal cloud advance from the sea horizon towards the beaches under the sometimes frightened gaze of those who sought the freshness of the Atlantic Ocean.
Inside the land, the thermometer would have reached 46.6 ° C in Mora, a hundred kilometers east of Lisbon. If this statement was formalized, it would be as in Spain a new record for a month of June, according to the local press.
Forest lights and heat strokes
And everywhere, inhabitants and tourists try to adapt as best they can. “You have to do everything in the morning and stay inside in the afternoon to avoid heat peaks,” said a 60-year-old French woman.
“It’s difficult, I have to drink all the time,” a 40-year-old Bangladais abounds on Monday, who walks the streets of Lisbon with his tuk-tuk to introduce the city to visitors.
In Italy, the Ministry of Health has placed on red alert 17 cities across the country, including Rome, Milan, Florence and Verona. “Climate refuges” were installed in Bologna and dehumidifiers distributed to the needy in Ancône.
It is “one of the strongest waves of heat in summer”, which is also marked by its particularly long duration, commented to AFP the expert Antonio Spano, founder of the specialized ilmeteo.it site.
While the firefighters were fighting forest fires in several regions of Italy, local media reported that a 77 -year -old woman died on Sunday, suffocated by the smoke of a fire raging near her house in Potza (south).
Also in Portugal, the risk of fire was maximum in most forest areas, but a home that had declared itself the day before near Castelo Branco (center) was under control on Monday. In Türkiye, more than 50,000 people of 41 localities had to be evacuated Monday because of forest fires.
After the death in Spain on Saturday of two people working on the roads, probably following a heat stroke, the unions for their part called to put in place measures to protect workers exposed to hot weather.
Schools closed in France
The trend is clear: heat waves become more intense, more frequent, begin earlier and act later at the end of summer under the effect of climate change.
In France, the school period is now concerned: the country had experienced an unusual heat wave in September 2023, and today the last week of school is struck.
Sixteen French departments of which Paris and its region have been placed in a heat wave for the day on Tuesday, Monday Météo-France announced on Monday, warning that the heat will be particularly trying in the Paris Basin.
And with 84 departments out of the 95 in the country (excluding overseas) in orange vigilance on Monday, the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher stressed that such a geographic extension was “never seen”.
Faced with a heat wave called to last at least until the middle of the week, companies were called upon to “protect their employees” and some 200 public schools, out of 45,000, will be partial or total closed on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
In Croatia, the vast majority of the coast is on red alert due to temperatures around 35 degrees, while Montenegro faces a high risk of fire and Serbia is experiencing a severe and extreme drought affecting a large part of the territory.
The United Kingdom was also affected by this heat wave on the first day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The British authorities having launched an orange alert in five regions of England, including London.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ATS / AFP
