Europe in the grip of heat wave
Record-high temperatures in the northern hemisphere turned July 2023 into the hottest month of July in recorded history
Corina Cristea, 24.07.2023, 14:00
The northern hemisphere struggled with yet another week of scorching heat. Temperatures were significantly over 40° Celsius in Italy and Spain, for instance, while devastating wildfires ravaged Greece, Canada and California. In the Canary Islands, a fire has destroyed 5,000 ha of land this month, forcing the evacuation of 4,000 people.
On the Greek island of Rhodes, over 250 fire-fighters, including 52 from Romania, are working to put out a large-scale wildfire caused by the extreme heat and fed by strong winds. Thousands of hectares of forests, small and big hotels, homes, churches, and farms have been destroyed, and 30,000 tourists and locals were evacuated. The authorities have arranged for tourist repatriation flights and say this is the largest evacuation in the history of Greece, where a code red alert for extreme heat is still in force until 27 July.
Several other parts of Europe are also under code red alerts, as temperature records are being reported around the world. Italy holds the heat record for continental Europe with 48.8 degrees Celsius measured in Sicily on 11 August 2021. On Tuesday, the highest temperature reported in that region was 44 degrees Celsius. On the same day, Spains meteorology agency announced 45.3 degrees Celsius in Catalonia, and 43.7 degrees Celsius in the Balearic Islands.
In the south of France, record high temperatures were reported especially in the Alps, Pyrenees and on the island of Corsica, with 11.9 degrees Celsius above the average for this season. Red code heat alerts were also introduced in Serbia, Slovenia and northern Croatia, while Switzerland also reported wildfires.
The UN called on the world to prepare for more intense heat waves, advising people to prepare their own personal emergency plans to handle these temperatures. The extreme heat that holds the northern hemisphere in its grip puts „an increasing strain” on healthcare systems, the World Health Organisation warned, as hospitals in the most affected regions have already announced increases in the number of emergencies related to the high temperatures.
In turn, the World Meteorological Organisation has recently warned of an increased risk of deaths linked to excessively high temperatures.
All these warnings come after last summer heat waves caused over 60,000 deaths in Europe alone, according to a recent survey. Currently temperatures are dropping slightly, but the weather remains hot in the south of Europe, where temperatures stay above 40 degrees Celsius in Sicily, Cyprus and Greece. But according to the World Meteorological Organisation, heat waves will continue to affect many parts of the world in August as well. (AMP)
