Lucifer brings hellish heat to Europe
Eleven southern and central European countries have issued extreme heat warnings amid a brutal heatwave nicknamed Lucifer, with residents and tourists urged to take precautions and scientists warning that worse could be still to come.
European forecasters’ network Meteoalarm said authorities in countries including Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia were on red alert, and swathes of southern Spain and France were on amber alert.
As temperatures in many places hit or exceeded 40 degrees C in the region’s most sustained heatwave since 2003, emergency services are being put on standby and people have been asked to ‘‘remain vigilant’’, stay indoors, avoid long journeys, drink enough fluids and listen for emergency advice from health officials.
At least two people have died from the heat, one in Romania and one in Poland, and many more have been taken to hospital suffering from sunstroke and other heat-related conditions.
Italy said its hospitalisation rate was up 15 per cent on the normal level, and asked people in affected regions to travel only if their journey was essential. Polish officials warned of possible infrastructure failures.
The heatwave, now in its fourth day and expected to last until next Thursday, follows an earlier spell of extreme temperatures last month that fuelled a spate of major wildfires, exacerbated droughts in Italy and Spain, and damaged crops. It is forecast to peak at the weekend with temperatures of 46C or higher in Italy and parts of the Balkans.
Authorities in Italy, which is suffering its worst drought in 60 years, have placed 26 cities on the maximum extreme heat alert, including Venice and Rome. Many of Rome’s fountains have been turned off, and last week the city only narrowly averted drastic water rationing.
In Florence, the Uffizi art gallery was temporarily closed yesterday when the air conditioning system broke down. In Hungary, keepers at Budapest zoo cooled down two overheating polar bears with huge ice blocks.
Temperatures along parts of Croatia’s Adriatic coast, including Dubrovnik, are expected to hit 42C during the day. In the Serbian capital, Belgrade, there were reports of people fainting from heat exhaustion.
Highs in Spain, including in popular holiday resorts on the Costa del Sol and on the island of Majorca, are set to reach 43C this weekend, with extreme conditions also forecast in Seville, Malaga and Granada. Ibiza and Mallorca could hit 42C, Spain’s Aemet meteorological service warned.
While Europe’s record high is 48C, set in Athens in 1977, current temperatures are in many places as much as 10 to 15C higher than normal for the time of year and are likely to result in more fatalities, experts have said.
Europe’s record-breaking 2003 heatwave resulted in more than 20,000 heat-related deaths, mainly of old and vulnerable people, including 15,000 in France, where temporary mortuaries were set up in refrigerated trucks.
Such spells of extreme heat in southern Europe could be a taste of things to come. French researchers last month predicted that summer conditions in some of the continent’s popular tourist destinations could become significantly tougher.
Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the scientists said that if a similar ‘‘mega-heatwave’’ to that of 2003 was to occur at the end of the century, when average temperatures are widely expected to be noticeably higher after decades of global warming, temperatures could pass 50C.
The current extreme temperatures, coupled with strong winds, have fanned wildfires that have already caused more than 60 deaths this summer in Portugal and caused widespread damage in southern France, Greece and Italy.
About 300 firefighters and military personnel were fighting 75 wildfires yesterday in Albania, with firefighters also busy in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Greece and the French Corsica.
In Italy, fires killed a 79-year-old woman in the central Abruzzo region and forced the closure of the main Via Aurelia coastal motorway that runs north from Rome to the Italian Riviera.
The country’s winemakers have started harvesting their grapes weeks earlier than usual due to the heat. The founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, said no harvest in living memory had begun before August 15.
The heatwave is likely to cost Italy’s agricultural sector billions of euros, with as many as 11 regions facing critical water shortages. Olive yields in some areas are forecast to be down 50 per cent and some milk production has fallen by up to 30 per cent.
Bosnian officials said the heatwave and drought had nearly halved agricultural output, which represents 10 per cent of the country’s economic output, and Serbia said its corn production could be cut a third. Croatia, island of