Western Europe has experienced severe weather, including devastating wildfires, a severe drought, and a record-breaking third-hottest day on Monday- these are a few of the conditions people are living with in parts of Western Europe right now.
Large areas of southern France have been set on fire, forcing 32,000 people to evacuate, said the French Interior Ministry.
According to French national meteorological service Météo France that the nearby town of Cazaux recorded 42.4 degrees Celsius (108.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, the hottest temperature since the weather station opened more than 100 years ago.
Nantes and Brest, which are both located in Western France, also hit heat records, it said.
Fires had first been reported in Finistère, a western province of France, by Monday afternoon. Within eight hours, more than 700 acres of land had been destroyed by the flames and villages in the area had been evacuated.
This past Sunday, Spanish wildfires burned parts of the country, including areas in the provinces of Castile and León, as well as norther region of Galicia. Due to the flames, the railway company had to shut down the Madrid-Galicia line.
70,000 hectares have been ravaged by fire in Spain so far this year, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says. “Seventy-thousand hectares, to give you an idea, is almost double the last decade’s average,” he said.
The heat wave in Portugal has exacerbated a preexisting drought and sparked wildfires in central parts of the country, including the village of Memoria in Leiria municipality.Today, Monday, The Carlos III Health Institute has calculated that an excess of 510 heatwave-related deaths in the country were the result of statistical calculation.
Hundreds have also died in neighboring Portugal due to intense, unending heat and severe drought.
Six hundred and fifty-nine Portuguese citizens, mostly elderly, have died during the past seven days, as Reuters reported.
As if all that were not bad enough, an elderly couple also died Monday after their vehicle overturned while fleeing from wildfires in Portugal.
The number of deaths linked to the heatwave currently affecting southern Europe is 1,100.
This week will be the peak of the blistering heat wave.
As the heatwave heads across the country, France’s capital, Paris, is expected to reach 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday. On Monday, the temperature reached 38.1 degrees in eastern England’s Santon Downham, making it the third hottest day on record. Officials warned things would likely get worse.
According to the UK’s Met Office, the country is experiencing the hottest day record on Monday.
The head of the Met Office, Penelope Endersby, expects Tuesday to be even hotter.
On Monday, Endersby said it’s tomorrow that we’re likely to see temperatures above 40 degrees and highs exceeding that level. Although he said that they can’t say anything definitively yet, 41 could potentially happen and they’ve already projected that it could reach 43 at worst.
Belgium’s Royal Meteorological Institute (KMI/IRM) has issued a code red weather warning for high temperatures for two provinces on Tuesday, with high temps up to 40 Celsius in the west and southwest.
With such high temperatures, it is essential to do as follows: drink regularly, wear lighter clothes, spend the day in cooler spaces, watch your health, eat easier to digest food, and keep your doors and windows closed to avoid the heat. Pets and animals also need special care, it warns residents.
Risk of drought
Researchers at the EU Commission said Monday that half of Europe’s land area is “at risk” of drought.
The Joint Research Centre found that Europe’s current drought is serious because of a poor end-of-spring-summer period and because of consecutive hot days in May and June.
According to the report, the supply of water could be compromised soon.
During an interview with CNN on Monday, Oxford University Professor Myles Allen warns that these sweltering heatwaves will be the new norm if people don’t soon make reductions in carbon emissions.
“This isn’t a new normal because we’re just on a trend towards ever hotter temperatures,” Allen told CNN on Monday.
As a result, a sweeping change must occur across the energy industry. Despite concerns about losing competitiveness to rivals, companies are unlikely to unilaterally change their business models, he said.”It’s got to be a regulation on the industry as a whole,” said Allen.
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