Europe battling deadly heat
LISBON: Europe’s scorching heatwave has killed nine people in a week in Spain, health authorities said on Tuesday, as stifling temperatures kindled wildfires in the country and Portugal, where a blaze encircled a resort town.
Weeks of non-stop sunshine and near-record temperatures caused droughts and saw tinderdry forests consumed by wildfires from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle, in what many feared could be the region’s new normal in an era of climate change.
The devastating effects of the heatwave were visible from space, according to images of arid landscape taken by the German astronaut Alexander Gerst from the International Space Station.
Spain and Portugal approached record temperatures at the weekend, with the mercury hitting 46.6°C at El Granado in Spain and 46.4°C in Alvega, Portugal.
In France, violent thunderstorms ended the heatwave, but led to rail cancellations with trees toppled and powerlines down. Gusts exceeded 100kph in the Somme and Pas de Calais regions.
Wildfires sparked in northern Europe, with blazes still burning up to the Arctic Circle in Sweden, which sizzled in record temperatures in July that also caused mountain top glaciers to melt.
The Arctic regions of Finland and Norway had been so hot that they experienced 12 “tropical” nights this year, with temperatures topping 20°C.
About 1,000kg of dead fish had been scooped from rivers and lakes in Switzerland in recent days, as the heat raised water temperatures.