Sizzling July brings record heat across four continents
Brutal temperatures are blamed in deaths, hospitalizations, fires
This summer is shaping up to be a record sizzler, from Algeria’s deserts to Japan’s bustling cities.
With the United Kingdom poised for historic heat Friday, countries across four continents smashed their own temperature marks this month.
In the past 30 days, there have been 3,092 new daily high temperatures, 159 new monthly heat records and 55 alltime highs worldwide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In the U.S. alone, there have been 1,542 new daily high temperatures, 85 new monthly heat records and 23 alltime highs during the same period, most of them recorded in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana.
In the United Kingdom, temperatures Thursday reached 95.2 degrees at Wisley, Surrey, making it the hottest day of the year so far, according to the Met Office, which provides weather predictions and warnings for the U.K. The United Kingdom’s all-time heat record of 101.3 degrees could be broken Friday, the Met Office said in a statement. That record was set in Faversham on Aug. 10, 2003.
Japan recorded its highest temperature ever Monday with a reading of 106 degrees in Kumagaya. More than 65 people have died during this heat wave, and more than 22,000 people have been taken to hospitals.
Officials called the heat a natural disaster.
In South Korea, 10 people have died from heat-related health complications, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
Temperatures this week reached 103.8 in Hayang, South Korea, the highest in the country this year. And in North Korea, temperatures reached 104 degrees.
“It is so hot these days that I cannot figure out whether I am in (South Korea) or in Southeast Asia,” Kim Sung-hee, a student in downtown Seoul, told ABC News.
More than 70 people died from heat in late June and early July in central and eastern Canada. Thirty-four of these deaths occurred in Montreal from June 29 to July 7 alone, NPR reported.
Montreal’s emergency services said it received more than 1,200 heat-related calls daily in the beginning of July.
Ouargla, Algeria, experienced the hottest reliably measured temperature ever in Africa at 124.3 on July 5. The city is the capital of the Ouargla Province in the Sahara Desert.
Temperatures of 131 hit Kebili, Tunisia, in 1931, but historians have their doubts about the record.
In Sweden, recent temperatures caused at least 50 forest fires – some north of the Arctic Circle.
Nearly 100 people were forced to evacuate their homes last week, according to Swedish officials.
Temperatures in Kvikkjokk soared to 90.5 Tuesday, an all-time high for the city and nearly 20 degrees higher than the country’s normal July temperatures. In southern Sweden, Uppsala hit 93.9 degrees Monday, its highest since 1975.
In Norway, all-time records were reached Tuesday in Namsskogan and Mo I Rana. The small town of Snasa smashed its own mark with a temperature of 88.9 degrees on Monday.
In southern Finland, Turku hit 91.9, the hottest day since 1914.