The thermometer on a tourist bus in Madrid, Spain, reads 49 degrees this Friday. Photo: REUTERS
With over 300 deaths in recent days in Portugal and Spain, due to the extreme heatwave and forest fires, the UK issued the red alert before the arrival of high temperatures this weekend.
In Spain, data from the Carlos III Institute of Health, dependent on the Ministry of Health, indicate that during the first three days of the heat wave alone – between 10 and 12 July – 84 people died from the effects of record temperatures that have been recorded in these days.
Numerous Spanish cities – Madrid, Seville, Zamora, Orense and others – have seen 40 degrees, although at the moment the national maximum has not been reached, which has been held by the municipality of Montoro (Córdoba) since last summer with 47.2 degrees .
The situation is even worse in Portugal, whose Directorate-General for Health recorded, between 7 and 13 July, an “excess of mortality” of 238 deaths above the usual average on these dates, a figure which also attributes to the high levels of mercury.
Dehydration, decompensation or chronic diseases are some of the factors that can suddenly aggravate people’s health and lead to a fatal outcome.
Excited tourists in the center of Lisbon, Portugal. Photo: BLOOMBERG
Between flames and despair: the fires in Spain, France and Portugal, in the photo
unprecedented temperatures
Portugal broke the heat record on Tuesday, with a high of 47 degrees recorded in Pinhão-Santa Barbara (Viseu), a circumstance that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) fears it will reproduce in several European countries such as Great Britain.
In the case of London, this organization warned Friday that the weekend could reach 35 degrees, 10 degrees higher than the average in the British capital on these dates.
The record recorded in the UK is held by Cambridge with 38.7 degrees in 2019, but the WMO believes there is a 30% of probability of overcoming it in the next days.
That’s why the UK Meteorological Office (Met) has issued the red alert in central England – from London to Manchester and even in the York Valley – where the heat wave is expected to arrive from Sunday to Tuesday.
Precautions
The Met believes the thermometer will safely exceed 38 degrees e could reach 40, an official record never reached in the country, British authorities have therefore asked the population to take precautions in a “potentially serious” situation, bearing in mind that their homes are more prepared for rain and fog than excessive heat.
An image of the River Thames in London. Photo: AP
The Irish Meteorological Bureau (Met Éireann) has similar precautions, although it has issued an orange alert, not a red one, for this weekend and early next.
His forecasts suggest that the hottest days will be Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, when thermometers could fluctuate between 25 and 32 degrees Celsius, “highly unusual” conditions that will continue to “cause discomfort” after twilight with dark nights between 15 and 15 degrees. and 20 degrees Celsius, close to what the Irish consider “tropical nights”.
The highest temperature recorded by Met Éireann dates back to the summer of 2006, with 32.3 degrees Celsius in Roscommon County.
On fire
Meanwhile, the most visible face of the heat wave in the Mediterranean continues to be the fire: in France there are three uncontrolled fires and the worst continue to be those in the southern half of the Gironde department, where 7,500 hectares have already been burned and more than 11,300 people have been evacuated.
President Emmanuel Macron himself, who visited the Interior Ministry’s crisis cell this Friday to follow up on the situation, acknowledged that the season is “exceptional in its harshness”, since so far this year the amount of earth burnt three times in 2020.
A forest fire near Guadapero, Spain. Photo: REUTERS
As in the Iberian Peninsula, the French one is the second summer heat wave: although it started a little later, it brought the mercury to 38 degrees and Paris is expected to reach 41 next week.
In Spain’s southwestern region of Extremadura, on the border with Portugal, where thousands of hectares have burned since the beginning of the week, a fire declared the day before represented an “unfavorable evolution” this Friday and threatened the National Park. of Monfragüe, a protected natural area for its biodiversity. .
The dry terrain and high temperatures make the mountain “an extraordinary explosive and this becomes a brutal enemy “of the fire brigade, the regional president of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, complained to reporters.
Greece is better in terms of temperatures thanks to the winds from the north that reach force 6 on the Beaufort scale, but these strong gusts are contributing to the spread of several fires in the capital region of Attica and in the island of Crete, where it was necessary to preventively evacuate several districts such as the city of Orne.
According to scientists, these unprecedented heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense fueled by climate change.
“The evidence shows that heat waves will become more prevalent and temperatures more extreme in the coming years,” Lorenzo Labrador of the World Meteorological Organization told Geneva.
Source: AFP and EFE
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Source: Clarin
