After Portugal and Spain, France and Britain are preparing for extreme temperatures

After Spain and Portugal, which have already been affected by heat for days, Britain and France – where 10,000 hectares of forest have burned – are today preparing to face a second wave of extreme temperatures in less than a month.

The increase in these phenomena is due to climate change, according to scientists, as the gases that cause the greenhouse effect increase their intensity, duration and frequency.

The heat wave that has settled in western Europe is “mainly affecting Spain and Portugal, but is expected to intensify and extend,” said Claire Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization, from Geneva.

She warned that the situation was critical because of “very dry ground” and the impact of temperatures on glaciers in the Alps: “It’s a very bad season for glaciers,” she stressed, just over a week after the collapse in Italy large volume of the Marmolanda glacier which caused the death of eleven people.

In France, two fires had burned 10,000 hectares of forest in the Bordeaux area until yesterday Tuesday morning.

The wave of extreme temperatures is expected to extend in France until at least the beginning of next week. Today the mercury will reach 31 to 36 degrees Celsius and in places in the southwest 37 to 38.

Saving

The heatwave is then expected to spread to other countries in western and central Europe.

In Britain, the Met Office has issued an orange alert for an “extreme heat wave” from Sunday, with temperatures likely to exceed 35 degrees Celsius.

Besides, the water supply companies have called on the British to save every drop of water, recommending among other things that they boil exactly the amount of water they need to make their tea.

With the thermometer over 40 degrees Celsius, Spain and Portugal are still sweltering.

Due to high temperatures and strong winds, fires that raged in central Portugal over the weekend intensified on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of many villages. More than 1,000 firefighters are involved in the battle with the flames.

As reported by local television networks, residents and firefighters are trying to contain the flames that threaten several villages about 100 kilometers north of Lisbon.

The risk of fire prompted authorities to close the Sintra Natural Park, west of Lisbon, as temperatures reached 43.1 degrees in central Portugal.

“Meteorological forecasts for the next few days remain particularly worrying in terms of the risk of fires,” Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said yesterday.

In Spain the temperature once again exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in much of the western part of the country. The peak of the phenomenon is expected tomorrow Thursday.

Favored by extreme temperatures, many fires are raging in the country, one of which has already burned 25,000 hectares of vegetation in Extremadura.

According to the Spanish government, from January 1 to July 3, 703,540 hectares of forest have burned in the country, almost double the number compared to the average of the previous ten years.

SOURCE: AMPE