Southeast Europe braces for heat wave
SKOPJE: Authorities in several southeast European countries have issued weather warnings before a heat wave in the region expected on Thursday that is set to push temperatures to as high as 43°C in inland areas.
Public health officials in North Macedonia on Wednesday said all six of the country’s administrative regions would be affected by the emergency and urged a pause in construction work and called for municipal-level initiatives to help the elderly and the homeless.
High temperatures are expected through the weekend in North Macedonia and neighbouring Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece, as well as parts of Romania and Serbia.
Meanwhile, Turkish rescue workers on Wednesday evacuated hundreds of people from their homes as a forest fire raged near a Mediterranean Sea resort popular with Russian tourists.
Footage on social media and Turkish TV showed rescuers dumping fire retardant from helicopters on burning buildings and fields in and around the coastal town of Manavgat.
“It’s an unbelievably bad sight,” Manavgat mayor Sukru Sozen told CNN Turk.
Local officials said four districts of the town had been evacuated and the fire was partially under control.
In Albania’s central Dimal region, temperatures reached 42°C on Wednesday.
In the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, municipal workers handed out free botles of water at several locations in the city.
Trucks were sent to water drying out sections of public parks and gardens.
Municipal authorities in Athens this week began providing air-conditioned spaces to the public, and advised residents to remain indoors at midday and the early aternoon.
The Greek capital has also appointed a chief heat officer, becoming the first European capital to do so.
Wildfires raged for a second day in southern Greece, forcing evacuations in a mountainous area outside the western port city of Patras.
Smoke from the fire was visible in the center of the city. Forest fires were also reported in Bulgaria and Albania.
Separately, the governors of California and Nevada on Wednesday planned to tour the state line area blackened by one of several massive wildfires that have destroyed dozens of homes in the West.