European
heatwave forecast to hit peak as health warnings issued
Tourists and
residents swelter in heat as temperatures rise to 44C in Spain, with forest
fires in Greece and Croatia
Sam Jones in
Madrid and agencies
Fri 19 Jul
2024 12.12 BST
A fierce
heatwave is continuing to roll across southern and central Europe, bringing
temperatures of up to 44C (111.2F) to parts of Spain, sparking forest fires in
Greece and Croatia, and prompting governments to urge people to take special
care as the mercury rises.
In Spain,
the state meteorological agency, Aemet, said temperatures on Friday could hit
40C across large parts of the country – and even 44C in areas of Andalucía – as
the first heatwave of the summer hit. Aemet said the high temperatures, caused
by a mass of “very hot, dry and dusty air” from North Africa, were expected to
last until Saturday.
“Today is
forecast to be the hottest day of this heat episode, with temperatures that
could exceed 40C in large areas of the southern half of Spain, in the Ebro
valley and in the interior of Mallorca,” said Luis Bañon, a spokesperson for
Aemet.
“Today, the
skies will remain full of sand from the Sahara, especially in the south-east of
the peninsula, in Ceuta, Melilla, the Balearics and the eastern Canaries.”
Spain’s
health ministry issued alerts for large parts of the country, calling on people
to take all necessary precautions against the high temperatures: “When it comes
to the heat: protect yourself; hydrate yourself; refresh yourself, and take
care of more vulnerable people.”
Héctor
Tejero, the ministry’s head of health and climate change, said people needed to
take the heat seriously and change their behaviour accordingly.
“We’re not
talking about polar bears and all that stuff, we’re talking about something
that affects your health,” he said in an interview with the online newspaper
elDiario.es on Friday.
“The heat is
killing 3,000 people a year and it’s going to get worse. But while exposure to
extreme heat is going to rise, we can also step up our adaptation to it …
Although it’s hotter in Spain than it was 20 years ago, fewer people are dying
because homes are better adapted, because we have air conditioning, and because
people are getting into a culture of dealing with the heat.”
In Greece,
the second heatwave of the summer brought hot, dry winds, forest fires and
temperatures of up to 43C on Thursday.
Firefighters
fought two large blazes on Thursday, one near a village on the outskirts of the
northern city of Thessaloniki, and a brush fire on the island of Kea, near
Athens. Emergency services ordered the evacuation of two areas on Kea, while
local media said the fire near Thessaloniki had damaged several homes.
“We appeal
to the public to be particularly careful as over the next few days there is a
very high risk of the outbreak of serious wildfires,” a government
spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, said. “Even one spark can cause a major
catastrophe.”
The
authorities shut all archaeological sites in Athens for a second consecutive
day on Thursday and restricted outdoor work.
Like many
countries in Europe, high temperatures have disrupted daily activities
repeatedly since June. Hundreds of wildfires, which scientists link to the
climate emergency, have broken out following the warmest winter on record.
Faced with
what is forecast to be the country’s longest heatwave on record, the government
has ordered some businesses not to let their employees perform heavy outdoor
duty from midday until 5pm this week as the mercury is expected to reach 42C in
parts of the country.
Italy,
meanwhile, put 14 cities under the highest level of alert as temperatures were
expected to climb past 40C, particularly in central and southern regions. The
health ministry said it would further extend the red alert to 17 Italian cities
on Friday, as the intense heat was forecast to continue until Sunday.
Dozens of
firefighters and three water-bombing planes were tackling a forest fire that
broke out late on Thursday near Croatia’s popular coastal resort of Trogir,
officials said.
About 70
firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading to houses and a hotel complex,
the national firefighting association said.
The fire
near Trogir, on the central Adriatic coast, was under control and additional
firefighting forces were arriving in the area, it added. “There is no threat to
houses and tourists,” the chief fire commander, Slavko Tucakovic, said.
In the
village of Seget Donji, the fire engulfed a large forest area by the sea near a
tourist camping site, the state-run HRT television reported.
Croatia,
like the rest of the Balkans, has been hit by a prolonged heatwave that started
earlier this month, with temperatures exceeding 37C. On Tuesday, Serbia’s state
power company reported record consumption due to the use of air conditioning.
Reuters, the
Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
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