Extreme heat kills hundreds as summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere

Heat waves hit cities on four continents as the Northern Hemisphere marks the first day of summer. Climate change is expected to help fuel record heat that could surpass the last Northern Hemisphere summer as the hottest in 2,000 years.

Record temperatures in recent days are suspected of causing hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths in Asia and Europe.

In Saudi Arabia, nearly two million Muslim pilgrims are finishing the annual Hajj pilgrimage at the Grand Mosque of Mecca this week.

Hundreds died during the journey amid temperatures above almost 52°C, according to reports from foreign authorities.

Egyptian medical and security sources told Reuters on Thursday (20) that at least 530 Egyptians had died during the pilgrimage – compared to 307 recorded as of Wednesday. Another 40 remain missing.

Countries around the Mediterranean also faced another week of high temperatures that contributed to wildfires from Portugal to Greece and along the North African coast in Algeria, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Observatory.

In Serbia, forecasters predicted temperatures of around 40°C this week as winds from north Africa drove a warm front across the Balkans.

Health authorities declared a red weather alert and advised people to avoid going outdoors.

The emergency service in Belgrade, Serbia, said its doctors intervened 109 times overnight to treat people with heart and chronic health problems.

In neighboring Montenegro in the Balkans, where health authorities also warned people to stay in the shade until late afternoon, tens of thousands of tourists sought to cool off on beaches along the Adriatic Sea coast.

This year, Europe has faced a series of deaths and disappearances of tourists amid dangerous heat.

A 55-year-old American was found dead on the Greek island of Mathraki, police said Monday — the third death of a tourist in a week.

Parts of the northeast and western US are also experiencing extreme heat, in a heat dome. More than 86 million people are under a heat warning this Thursday (20), according to the American National Weather Service.

A heat dome occurs when a strong high-pressure system traps hot air over a region, preventing cold air from entering and causing ground temperatures to remain high.

Under the heat emergency plan, New York City would open its cooling centers for the first time this year.

Meteorological authorities also issued an excessive heat warning for parts of the US state of Arizona, including Phoenix, this Thursday (20), with forecast temperatures of 45.5°C.

In the neighboring state of New Mexico, two fast-spreading wildfires fueled by intense heat killed at least one person, burned a wide swath of land and destroyed 500 homes, according to US authorities.

Heavy rain could help douse the flames, but storms on Thursday were also causing flash flooding and complicating firefighting efforts.

Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall this Thursday (20) near the Mexican city of Tampico and was responsible for four deaths, three of which were children.

The storm, weakened to a tropical depression, was expected to bring flooding to northeastern Mexico and the Texas coast as it moves inland.

Count of the dead

The summer period in India runs from March to May, when the monsoons begin to break the heat.

But New Delhi recorded its hottest night in at least 55 years on Wednesday (19), according to India’s Safdarjung Observatory, with a temperature of 35.2°C at 1am local time.

Temperatures typically drop at night, but scientists say climate change is causing nighttime temperatures to rise. In many parts of the world, nights are warming faster than days, according to a 2020 study from the University of Exeter.

New Delhi has recorded 38 consecutive days with maximum temperatures at or above 40°C since May 14, according to data from the meteorology department.

An Indian Health Ministry official said on Wednesday that there were more than 40,000 suspected cases of heatstroke and at least 110 confirmed deaths between March 1 and June 18, when northwest and eastern India recorded the double the normal number of heatwave days in one of the country’s longest periods.

However, it is difficult to get an exact number of deaths caused by heat waves. Most health authorities do not attribute deaths to heat, but rather to illnesses related to high temperatures, such as cardiovascular problems.

Therefore, authorities underestimate heat-related deaths by a significant margin, often ignoring thousands if not tens of thousands of deaths.