France was on high alert on Monday as the peak of a devastating heatwave swept the country, while wildfires that raged across parts of south-west Europe showed no sign of abating.
Forecasters have put 15 French departments on high extreme temperature alert as neighboring Britain poised to set new heat records in the coming week.
The heatwave is the second in weeks to engulf parts of southwest Europe, and fires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have destroyed thousands of hectares of land and forced thousands of residents and holidaymakers to flee.
Scientists blame climate change and predict more frequent and intense episodes of extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts.
Temperatures in France’s Landeswald, in the south-western Aquitaine region, will be “above 42 degrees Celsius” on Monday, forecaster Olivier Proust said.
And Brittany, which until recently escaped the worst of the heat, could see temperatures as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), experts say, which would be a record for the region.
In the south-west Gironde region, firefighters continued to battle wildfires over the weekend that have engulfed nearly 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Spanish authorities reported around 20 wildfires still out of control in different parts of the country, from the south to Galicia in the far north-west, where blazes have destroyed around 4,500 hectares of land.
The fires have already killed several civilians and responders since last week, most recently a firefighter who died late Sunday while battling a blaze in north-west Spain.
– ‘A Heat Apocalypse’ –
The forest fires in France forced more than 16,000 people – residents and tourists together – to leave. Seven emergency shelters were set up for the evacuees.
The French Interior Ministry announced that it would send three additional firefighting planes, 200 firefighters and more trucks.
“There will be a heat apocalypse in some southwestern areas,” meteorologist Francois Gourand told AFP.
The chapel of a historic hospital in the southeastern city of Lyon, Grand Hotel Dieu, offered shelter to tourists on Sunday, including Jean-Marc, 51, who was visiting from Alsace.
“We came back to admire the place but we can’t leave, it’s too hot outside. We pray before the fire!” he quipped.
French cyclist Mikael Cherel, who competed in the 15th stage of the Tour de France between Rodez and Carcassonne in southern France on Sunday, described “very, very difficult conditions”.
“I have never experienced such a hot day on a bike. It really wasn’t a cakewalk.”
– “Danger to life” in Great Britain –
In Spain, firefighters managed to stabilize a wildfire that devastated 2,000 hectares of forest and bushes in the southern region of Andalusia, regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno said.
The fire started on Friday in the Mijas Mountains, inland from the southern coastal city of Malaga, and led to the evacuation of about 3,000 people.
Around 2,000 people had since returned home, and now that the fire has stabilized, Moreno said the remaining evacuees could do the same.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit the hard-hit eastern region of Extremadura on Monday, where various fires have been raging for days.
In Portugal, despite a slight drop in temperature, almost the entire country remained on high alert for wildfires after reaching 47C on Thursday – a record for the month of July.
Only one major fire burned in the north on Sunday.
The fires have killed two people, injured around 60 and destroyed between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of land in Portugal.
In the UK, the Weather Bureau issued a ‘red’ warning for extreme heat for the first time, warning of ‘danger to life’.
The Met Office said temperatures in southern England could surpass 40C for the first time on Monday or Tuesday, prompting some schools to say they would remain closed next week.
The mercury is expected to reach 38C in parts of the Netherlands on Tuesday.
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