Europe, Asia and North America are still suffering from extreme heat this Wednesday, July 19 in several regions, sometimes plagued by violent forest fires such as in Greece, where hundreds of firefighters engaged “a huge battle” against the flames. From California to China, authorities have warned of the health dangers of these temperatures.
In Geneva, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that “extreme heat is hitting those least able to deal with its consequences, such as the elderly. , infants and children, as well as poor and homeless people. It also puts increased pressure on health systems.” According to the European observatory Copernicus, the first fortnight of July was the hottest fortnight on record and July is on track to become, globally, the hottest month of July in history. In Europe, several regions have been placed on red alert due to the “extreme danger” induced by these temperatures.
Hundreds of firefighters are fighting fires in the Canary archipelago and especially in Greece where, for the third consecutive day, “a huge battle” against the flames is waged west of Athens and on the tourist island of Rhodes, according to the Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias. Winds of up to 60 km / h blowing over part of the country are fanning the fires and a new heat wave is expected there from Thursday, with temperatures which could reach 44°C on Friday and Saturday. Reinforcements will be sent from Romania, Slovakia and Poland as part of European mutual aid, announced Yannis Artopios, spokesman for the Greek firefighters. One hundred and forty-nine Polish firefighters, aboard 49 vehicles, left Poland for Greece on Wednesday, officials said. In Greece, despite evacuation orders in some localities, some residents refused to leave their homes.
Charon
After Cerbère, it is the heat wave Charon, named after the smuggler of the Underworld, which envelops the northern Mediterranean coast. In the south of France, records have been broken, mainly at altitude in the Alps (east), the Pyrenees (west) and the island of Corsica, the meteorological services announced. These records are 8°C to 11.9°C above normal for the season.
In Spain, “you can’t be on the street, it’s horrible, horrible, horrible,” lamented Lidia Rodriguez, 29, in Madrid. “As I’m from Seville, I’m used to the heat, but there, we’re suffocating,” testified the vacationer to AFP. According to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), temperatures reached 45.3°C on Tuesday in Figueres, Catalonia (northeast), and 43.7°C in the Balearic Islands. In Italy, twenty cities are placed on red alert. In Rome, the mercury reached 40°C, just below the local record of 40.5°C dating from August 2007.
Early Tuesday afternoon, the highest temperature recorded in Italy, which holds the heat record in Europe with 48.8°C measured in Sicily on August 11, 2021, was 44°C in Ragusa, in this same Mediterranean island. “In Naples, with the suitcases we can do ten minutes after we are dead”, assured AFP Erica Levler, 24, a Roman student on vacation in this city in the south of the Boot. “It’s a little better here because there is the sea, in Rome there is not the sea”.
“Struggle Plans”
Temperature records were similarly broken around the world on Tuesday. The UN has called on the world to prepare for “more intense heat waves”, urging everyone to prepare their own “control plans” to face these extreme temperatures day and night. Beijing broke a 23-year-old record with 27 consecutive days of temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius, forecasters said. In Iraq, the center and the south of the country experienced maximum temperatures exceeding 45 degrees and sometimes approaching 50 degrees. Thursday will be 50 degrees in Basra in the far south of the country and the governor of the province has decided on a public holiday for the administrations.
Extreme heat waves in Asia
© / afp.com/Julia Han JANICKI
Phoenix, the capital of Arizona in the southern United States, broke a 49-year record with its 19th consecutive day of temperatures above or equal to 43.3 degrees Celsius, the weather services said. The heat wave hitting the southern United States has favored several very violent fires in California, leading to the evacuation of residents. The largest, Rabbit Fire, burned some 3,200 hectares.
In Canada, more than eleven million hectares have already gone up in smoke this year, with 885 active fires on Tuesday, including 566 considered out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC).