#Europes #hottest #summer
Europe’s increasingly frequent heatwaves are back in the spotlight due to devastating wildfires, and muggy temperatures are expected to hit record highs in the UK and France this week.
In just over two decades, the continent has experienced its five hottest summers since 1500.
– 2022: Double Trouble –
A heatwave sweeping western Europe, the second in a month, is sparking huge wildfires and threatening to break records in Britain and France.
Fires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain are forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee, killing several including a Spanish shepherd and a firefighter.
Britain braces for an all-time high of 40 degrees Celsius or more. Brittany in France could also see similar temperatures, which would be a regional record.
The weather warnings follow a scorching heat in June when parts of Europe, from Spain to Germany, sizzled with unseasonably high temperatures of between 40 and 43C.
– 2021: The Hottest Ever –
According to the European climate monitoring service Copernicus, last year was Europe’s hottest summer on record.
Between late July and early August 2021, Greece is experiencing what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described as the country’s worst heatwave in over 30 years, with temperatures reaching 45C in some regions.
In Spain, temperatures will reach 47C in parts of the south, according to the national weather agency AEMET.
The heat and drought are fueling major wildfires along the Mediterranean Sea, from Turkey and Greece to Italy and Spain.
– 2019: Northern Europe smolders –
According to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the Belgian University of Louvain, the summer of 2019 brought two heat waves with around 2,500 deaths.
In France, temperatures hit a record 46C in the southern city of Verargues on June 28. Thousands of schools are closed.
On July 24th and 25th, Northern Europe is roasting in record heat. Temperatures of 42.6 degrees are measured in Lingen in northwestern Germany, 41.8 degrees in Begijnendijk in northern Belgium and 38.7 degrees in the eastern English city of Cambridge.
– 2018: Drought drains the Danube –
In the second half of July and early August 2018, large parts of Europe experience very high temperatures and rivers dry up due to drought.
The Danube is falling to its lowest level in 100 years in some areas, notably exposing WWII tanks in Serbia that have been submerged since the conflict.
Portugal and Spain are suffering from enormously destructive forest fires.
– 2017: months of muggy –
Much of Europe, but especially the south, sweats from the end of June until well into August.
Spain set a record 47.3C in the southern city of Montoro on July 13.
Persistent drought triggers forest fires in Portugal.
– 2015: Consecutive heat waves –
In the summer of 2015, heat wave after heat wave hit France, killing an estimated 1,700 people.
In Britain, roads are melting and trains are delayed in the hottest July on record, with temperatures reaching 36.7C at Heathrow Airport.
– 2007: Greek forests burn –
Central and southern Europe are hit by drought in June and July, triggering a spate of wildfires in Italy, North Macedonia and Serbia.
In Hungary, 500 people die as a result of the heat.
– 2003: 70,000 dead –
The UK, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal are all experiencing exceptional heat in the first half of August, with Portugal suffering a record 47.3C in Amareleja to the south.
A 16-nation EU study put the number of excess deaths across the bloc during the heatwave at 70,000, with France and Italy each having between 15,000 and 20,000 deaths since, according to various reports.
In France, most of the victims are elderly people in an episode that is traumatizing the country and leading to the introduction of new protection systems during heat waves.
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