Fires blaze in Spain, Morocco and Israel

MADRID • Spain saw its highest temperature on record last Saturday as a heatwave on the Iberian peninsula drove the mercury to 47.4 deg C, according to provisional data from the state meteorological agency.

The temperature peaked around 5pm local time in the southern town of Cordoba, the agency said, passing the previous record set at the same measuring station in July 2017 by one-tenth of a degree.

"If confirmed, it would be the highest record reliably measured in Spain," agency spokesman Ruben del Campo said.

The intense heatwave hitting Spain continued on Sunday with five regions still on high alert over extreme temperatures.

The heatwave "will probably rank among the most intense in living memory", according to the Del Campo newspaper.

Between 2011 and 2020, Spain saw twice as many heatwaves as in the previous three decades, said the agency. Scientists consider this pattern of heatwaves to be an unequivocal sign of climate change that will only get worse.

Meanwhile, firefighters in northern Morocco are battling to put out two forest blazes, said a forestry official on Sunday as the North African kingdom swelters in a heatwave.

"Non-stop efforts are under way to control the fires which broke out on Saturday afternoon," said Mr Rachid El-Anzi, director of the water and forestry department in the Chefchaouen region.

He said firefighting planes were being used to tackle the conflagrations, which had already destroyed some 200ha of forest.

Several parts of the North African country have seen temperatures of up to 49 deg C, according to weather authorities.

"There have been no victims, as priority has been given to preventing fires approaching residential areas," Mr El-Anzi said.

He said the cause of the fires was not known, but that they had been spurred by high temperatures and strong winds.

Morocco joins several other Mediterranean countries that have seen forest fires in recent weeks, including neighbouring Algeria where at least 90 people were killed in wildfires last week.

Wildfires in wooded hills outside Jerusalem sent smoke clouds billowing over the city on Sunday as planes and crews on the ground fought flames that forced the evacuation of several small communities.

Israel's Magen David Adom national ambulance service reported no serious injuries, and there appeared to be little danger that the fires, some 10km west of Jerusalem, would reach the city.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS