48m ago
11.13 BST
Germany
could break all-time record temperature as heatwave hits
Deborah Cole
in Berlin
Temperatures
are expected to surge close to the 40-degree Celsius mark across much of
Germany on Wednesday, and could break the all-time record for Germany of 41.2
degrees, set in July 2019.
Drought-like
conditions led more than 40 districts to restrict water use, including for
farmers and gardeners, in addition to dozens of municipalities calling on
citizens to conserve water.
In
Brandenburg state surrounding Berlin, two forest fires broke out on Tuesday,
with high temperatures and munitions in the soil complicating the work of
firefighters, who by the evening had the situation under control.
The Bild
tabloid splashed “Baking oven Germany” and interviewed people working outside
in the stifling heat.
“The
feedings in the enclosures alone leave us in the blazing sun for two hours,”
said Julian Heck, tending to the sea lions at Cologne zoo with his colleague
Andreas Hölscher.
The animals
themselves were faring better, Hölscher said. “They like to lie in the sun in
the morning. Afterwards they can cool off in the cold fountain water.”
Nurse
Babette Jacobus at a hospital in Berlin’s Marzahn district said she wore a
cooling vest similar to a jersey, held under a faucet and then wrung out, to
cope with her strenuous tasks of moving patients in and out of bed. “You
quickly start sweating - especially in this heat. The vest is lightweight and
comfortable but doesn’t get you wet.”
The hospital
itself introduced climate coping measures four years ago including greening the
facade, covering the windows externally with foil and hanging cooling curtains
in patients’ rooms.
Municipal
authorities across the country were scrambling to help the most vulnerable,
racing to set up “cool-down rooms” for the public and hotlines for the elderly
and ill.
The
association of cities and towns has called for another five billion euros
annually from states and the federal government to cope with the impact of
ever-more-frequent heatwaves.
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