Europe heat wave smashes records
PARIS • A devastating heat wave inflicted life-threatening temperatures on Europe and shattered all-time highs in several countries on Thursday.
Temperatures in Paris reached a jaw-dropping 42.6 Celsius in the later afternoon local time, according to Météo-france, the national weather service, breaking the previous record of 40.4 C set in 1947.
The inferno began Wednesday in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, where many record high temperatures were set. But some of these records stood for only one day and were beaten on Thursday, when temperatures climbed even higher from France north into Britain and eastward to Germany.
London experienced its hottest day ever recorded in July, with temperatures recorded at 36.9 C, according to figures from the Met Office.
“No one is safe in such temperatures,” said Agnès Buzyn, France’s health minister. “This is the first time that this affects departments in the north of the country ... populations that are not accustomed to such heat.”
“Heat waves are a serious problem for older and ill people,” Anton Hofreiter, leader of Germany’s Green Party in parliament, told Der Spiegel. He said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government was not doing enough to support those affected and cited France as a role model.
It took 10 minutes for a chocolate Eiffel Tower to melt in the Paris sun as the city sweltered in record-breaking heat on July 25.
The torture continued across town, where the heat reverberated off the pavement and the city’s iconic stone facades, turning its grand boulevards and stately avenues into tunnels where it was impossible to escape the inferno.
In Belgium, where the government activated a “code red” alert over the hot weather for the first time, some regional trains were likewise out of service because the equipment could not stand the heat.
The mercury in Belgium hit 39.9 C on Wednesday, the hottest since records began to be kept in 1833, and temperatures were expected to be even hotter on Thursday.
In London, parents took young children to air-conditioned shopping malls, while others headed for local supermarkets to stock up on ice cream and the last fans still in stock.
Punishing heat — in historic cities largely without widespread air conditioning, especially in homes — has become Europe’s new normal.
Globally, 2019 is on its way to being one of the top five hottest years since record-keeping began in the late 19th century. And in part because of the hot weather in Europe, July may rank as the hottest month on record.