Heatwave scorches Europe, from London to Siberia
Mercury hovers around 35 degrees across oven-like swathes of Europe
PARIS: Europe sizzled under a continent-wide heatwave on Wednesday, with London bracing for Britain’s hottest June day since 1976 as Portugal struggled to stamp out deadly forest fires.
More than 1,000 firefighters were still battling to control the flames that broke out in central Portugal at the weekend, killing at least 64 people.
Two forest fires have also broken out since Sunday on Croatia’s southern Adriatic coast, prompting the authorities to evacuate 800 tourists, although the blazes have now been brought under control.
“We were scared, it’s true,” Swedish tourist Karolina told local media. “From the hotel room window it seemed like the fire was at our doors.”
As the northern hemisphere marked the summer solstice — the longest day of the year — the mercury hovered around 35 degrees Celsius across oven-like swathes of Europe, including Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and even alpine Switzerland.
Firefighters were on alert in Austria, where revellers were set to mark the solstice by setting light to hundreds of bonfires to celebrate the festival of Saint John — a tradition that goes on until the end of the month.
In Italy, forecasters say the current heatwave could turn out to be the most intense in 15 years, with temperatures around eight degrees above the seasonal average — 39 degrees Celsius in Milan and up to 30 in the Alps at an altitude of 1,000 metres.
A study released on Monday warned that deadly heatwaves will become more and more common around the world even if the rise in temperatures is capped at 2.0 degrees C as targeted by the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.