Temperatures are forecast to soar across much of western Europe early next week, just days after a record-breaking heatwave caused hundreds of excess deaths and disrupted daily life across the Continent.
Luca Mercalli, the president of Italy’s Meteorological Society, said temperatures are set to rise again in western Europe from July 5th-6th.
“The areas affected look broadly the same as in the first wave, including France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and to some extent Britain,” he said.
“With the extreme heat the risk of forest fires increases, but we are also seeing a lot of rainstorms, which obviously mitigates that risk,” he added, noting that storms were very localised so rainfall amounts could vary greatly.
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The heatwave scorching Europe, the most severe and widespread ever, is only possible due to the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning, scientists have said.
[ France’s hottest day: ‘We had 44 degrees. I have a photo of the thermometer’Opens in new window ]
Meanwhile, parts of central, eastern and southern Europe are sweltering this week as the “heat dome” behind last week’s record-breaking temperatures shifts east.
Budapest is forecast to exceed 40 degrees on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Belgrade and Bucharest reached 38 and 37 degrees, respectively, on Monday as the heatwave, which has been linked to hundreds of deaths in western Europe, moved east.
Slovakia set a new temperature record, reaching 40.5 degrees in a southern border town, beating a previous record of 40.3 degrees set in 2007.
“The two hardest days of the heatwave are coming. Let’s show that we are capable of complete national unity. Let’s look out for each other,” Hungary’s prime minister, Péter Magyar, wrote on X on Monday.
Hungarian authorities published a list of more than 2,000 air-conditioned cooling centres across the country for people unable to find relief from the heat in their homes.
Hungary’s energy minister granted a temporary exemption for a nuclear power plant from cooling-water temperature rules to prevent another steep cut in power output amid the heatwave, the plant’s operator said.
Red warnings for extreme heat have been issued across Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with authorities urging people to stay indoors during the hottest hours of the day.
Germany recorded its highest temperature for a third consecutive day on Sunday, with preliminary data from the DWD weather service showing 41.7 degrees in Coschen, Brandenburg. The extreme heat disrupted transport in several cities after tram tracks buckled, while Berlin police deployed water cannon to cool crowds gathering in public spaces.
In Croatia, the weather service issued a red alert on Monday for regions including the capital, Zagreb, and the tourist destinations of Split and Dubrovnik.
In Italy, 22 cities from Bolzano in the north to Palermo on the southern island of Sicily were covered on Monday by a red heat warning.
Pilgrims at the Vatican used fans to cool themselves and sheltered under umbrellas for shade as Pope Leo delivered his Angelus message from a balcony to the crowd below on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, a holiday in the city of Rome.
Further south, Albania contained a wildfire that has consumed many hectares of bushes and olive trees near the southern village of Klos over the weekend.
The heatwave, which began on June 20th, set records for early summer and the blistering conditions disrupted power generation, damaged infrastructure and overwhelmed healthcare systems.
France has reported 1,000 excess deaths blamed on the heatwave. The French public health agency said most of the heat-related fatalities involved older people and warned the number was expected to rise.
French media reported that funeral homes in Paris and the surrounding area were overwhelmed by the number of bodies they had to deal with.
The heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, which has made this week’s soaring night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been just two decades ago, according to scientists.
Daniele Mocio, a meteorologist with the Italian Air Force, said the heatwave was expected to persist for a few more days in central and eastern Europe, with temperatures running 8-10 degrees above average.
Further tragedies related to the heat were reported at the weekend.
Two boys aged 8 and 10 from Bulgaria were found dead in a hot car in Cyprus on Sunday afternoon, police said. Cyprus is experiencing temperatures of around 38 degrees, which is not classified as a heatwave on the east Mediterranean island for the time of year.
Elsewhere, two cyclists, aged 30 and 71, died while taking part in an event in the Poland Bike Marathon series in Marki near Warsaw on Sunday. – Reuters/Guardian
