Temperature records broken in France, fires in Spain, Italy hit by drought… Part of Europe was hit hard by an intense heat wave.
The heat wave that has been affecting southern Europe for a few days should reach its peak this Saturday, June 18. In France, almost the entire territory should be affected by extreme heat. Fourteen departments of the south-west were placed on red alert with temperatures which could locally reach 42°C, according to Météo-France, 56 others, from the Paris region to the German border, as well as from Brittany to the Lyon region, are in the orange.
On Friday, records for the month of June have already been broken in at least 11 municipalities, with in particular 40.4°C in Carcassonne, a city in the south of France. ” We are in a very early heatwave episode, a strong episode that lasts a little longer than expected “, declared the French Minister of Health Brigitte Bourguignon during a trip to a retirement home.
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In Spain, the heat wave that has been hitting the country for almost a week has caused fires that have strongly mobilized firefighters. More than 3,000 people were evacuated from the Puy du Fou Spain amusement park in the center of the country. Fires have also been reported in the Sierra de la Culebra (northwest), in Catalonia and near Baldomar, in the province of Lérida.
For its part, Italy is suffering from drought. In the north of the country, the Lombardy region is preparing to declare a state of emergency because crops are threatened. Rationing has already started in the Plaine du Po, a very agricultural region where the episode of drought has been the strongest for nearly 70 years.
The United Nations (UN) called on Friday to ” act now against drought and desertification in order to avoid human disasters “. ” Every action counts said the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Ibrahim Thiaw.
Direct consequence of global warming
In France also, the lack of water worries. ” The drought recent weeks has accelerated the maturity of cereals : some are ready three weeks in advance, and three days of terrible heat wave have done the work of ripening for 10-15 days “, explained Christiane Lambert, the leader of the majority agricultural union, the FNSEA.
According to his estimates, depending on the regions and depending on the weather for the next few days, there is a risk of having yield losses ” between 10 and 30% “, because ” cereals are dry, burnt by excessive temperatures.
According to scientists, such heat waves in Europe are the direct consequence of global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions increase the strength, duration and rate of repetition of heat waves. In the future, the occurrence of new, more intense or earlier heat wave episodes is therefore far from being ruled out.