Record early heatwave sweeps France, Spain
PARIS: French officials urged caution Thursday as a record pre-summer heatwave spread across the country from Spain, where authorities were fighting forest fires on a sixth day of sweltering temperatures.
The Meteo France weather service said it was the earliest hot spell ever to hit the country, worsening a drought caused by an unusually dry winter and spring, and raising the risk of wildfires.
Spain, which has already seen its hottest May since the beginning of this century, was sweating under temperatures forecast as high as 43 degrees Celsius (°C) and no relief is expected before Sunday, the Aemet weather service said.
At least three forest fires erupted in Catalonia, including one near Baldomar around 140km northeast of Barcelona, that has burned nearly 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) but could grow to 20,000 hectares before it is contained, the regional government said.
No evacuations have yet been ordered but people are being urged to remain in their homes.
Neighbouring Portugal saw its hottest May since 1931, with most scientists attributing the early season heat across Europe to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists say heat waves have become more likely due to climate change.
As global temperatures rise over time, heat waves are predicted to become more frequent and intense and last longer, and their impacts more widespread.
The heatwave crossed the Pyrenees into southern France on Tuesday and was set to hit most of the country by Saturday, when thermometers could reach 39°C in Paris.
Most of France was on heatwave alert, including 12 departments at the highest level in the southwest, where the education ministry advised parents to keep younger students at home if possible on Friday.
“Be alert! Hydrate, stay in cool areas, and stay in touch with those close to you,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Twitter.
Officials in Paris and other cities have also issued alerts over ozone pollution, which occurs when intense sunlight transforms carbon emissions into smog.
Addressing warnings by economists that fighting inflation could tip the United
States into a recession
Relations between between the president and vice-president had grown so tense over Pence’s refusal to overturn the election results that Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, told the panel he decided to warn the head of the vice-president’s Secret Service detail the day before the January 6 congressional session.
“My concern was for the vice president’s security,” Short said in a video excerpt from a deposition he gave the committee. Short said he felt that as the disagreement became more public he believed “that the president would lash out in some way”.
Aides and family who gathered in the Oval Office with Trump on the morning of January 6 described a furious final phone call the president made to Pence to implore him to go along with the plan.
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone considered the plan “nutty,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said in video testimony. Senior adviser Eric Herschmann called it “completely crazy.”