No respite to EU from heatwave
madrid — Europe sweltered through an intense heatwave on Sunday, with soaring temperatures contributing to forest fires, nuclear plants closing and even threatening the Netherlands’ supply of fries, although some countries experienced a slight respite.
A top of 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) was forecast in the southwest region of Extremadura on Sunday, where a wildfire in San Vicente de Alcantara has been brought under control by firefighters, the local fire service said.
The mercury had reached 44 C in the country’s south on Saturday, the Spanish Meteorological Agency said.
The rise in temperatures has already claimed the lives of three people who died of heatstroke this week.
The mercury was expected to climb to 45 C in some parts of Portugal on Sunday, but would not go above the 46.8 C recorded the day before in Alvega, 150 kilometres north of Lisbon, the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) said.
Records in several cities were broken on Saturday, but none reached the nationwide record of 47.3 C in the southern village of Amareleja in 2003.
However a forest fire continued to rage on two fronts in Monchique in the country’s south on Sunday.
Nearly 780 firefighters, supported by 200 vehicles and 10 waterdropping planes and helicopters were working to put it out, the civil protection agency said.
The heat, wind and difficulty in accessing some areas has complicated efforts to bring the fire under control, and a hundred people have been evacuated as a precaution.
Another forest fire, in central Estremoz, has left six people wounded, two in serious condition.
In France, 67 out of 101 departments were on heatwave alert with temperatures in the south of the country expected to again peak near 40 C.
Saturday was the hottest day in the country since the infamous heatwave of 2003, in which thousands of people died, many of them elderly people living on their own.
The emergency services complained that, despite public health warnings about keeping cool and hydrated, there was “still quite a lot of recklessness” — citing the example of an elderly man in Lyon who suffered heart problems while mowing his lawn under the merciless afternoon sun.
Four nuclear reactors remained closed Sunday over the blazing temperatures. Power company EDF said the measures were taken to avoid temperature hikes in rivers from which water is drawn to cool the reactors.