No relief for southern Europe as punishing heatwave persists

ROME - Spain and Portugal reported record temperatures on June 30 as Italy and France braced themselves for several more days of a punishing heatwave that has gripped southern Europe and Britain, sparking health and wildfire warnings.

The summer’s first major heatwave has seen the authorities in the countries along the Mediterranean’s northern coast urging people to seek shelter and protect the most vulnerable.

“This is unprecedented,” said France’s Ecology Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher, as a record 84 of the nation’s 96 mainland departments were placed on the second-highest “orange” heat alert.

Ambulances stood ready near tourist hot spots as experts warned that such heatwaves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent.

Firefighters were also on standby after blazes broke out on June 29 in France, Turkey and Italy, fed by the heat and strong winds.

Cities are offering different ways of staying cool, from free swimming pools in Marseille, to free guided tours for the elderly in air-conditioned museums in Venice.

Records

Temperatures in southern Spain soared to 46 deg C on June 28, a new record for the month, said the national weather agency on June 30.

“It’s a bit difficult”, said Ms Agathe Lacombe, a tourist from Strasbourg visiting Madrid with her children and grandchildren.

“You have to adapt your whole day’s planning, do everything in the morning and come home at the hottest times to find a bit of cool,” she told AFP.

“We didn’t anticipate it being so hot,” said her daughter-in-law Valentine Jung.

“It’s a good thing we’ve got air-conditioning in our accommodation – we didn’t think of that when we booked!” she said.

A new record maximum temperature for June was also recorded in Mora in Portugal on June 29, at 46.6 deg C, according to data from the national meteorological agency.

Seven regions in central and southern Portugal, including the capital Lisbon, were placed on a red alert for the second day running on June 30, with fire warnings in many forest areas.

In Italy, images posted by local media showed people running into the sea at a beach resort in Baia Domizia near Naples, as flames tore through pinewoods behind them.

“I have never experienced anything like this, we were surrounded by flames at least 30m high, smoke everywhere,” Mr Guido di Leone, mayor of nearby Cellole, wrote on Facebook.

Peak

In France, the heatwave is due to peak on July 1 and 2.

No such luck for Italy, where the sizzling temperatures will continue to the end of the week and beyond, according to Mr Antonio Spano, founder of the ilmeteo.it meterological website.

The authorities have issued red alerts for 18 cities across the country over the next few days, including Milan, Verona, Rome, Perugia and Palermo.

Scientists say climate change is stoking hotter and more intense heatwaves, particularly in cities where the so-called “urban heat island” effect amplifies temperatures among tightly packed buildings.

It has been particularly bad in Florence and Bologna, which have seen “incessant highs every day for the whole week, certainly much higher than the norm”, Mr Spano told AFP.

The school year, which ends on July 4 in France, has already finished in Spain, Portugal and Italy, where some summer camps are subsidised as part of efforts to keep children cool.

‘Not normal’

In Croatia, the vast majority of the coastline was on red alert, while an extreme temperature alert was issued for Montenegro.

And with little relief in sight, the meteorological service in Serbia warned that “severe and extreme drought conditions prevail in a large part” of the country.

In Madrid, where temperatures approached 40 deg C, 32-year-old photographer Diego Radames told AFPTV: “I feel that the heat we’re experiencing is not normal for this time of year.

“As the years go by, I have the feeling that Madrid is getting hotter and hotter, especially in the city centre.”

With temperatures set to rise as high as 34 deg C, Britain’s Met Office upped the number of amber heat alerts on June 30 to seven regions of England, where the Wimbledon tennis tournament was getting under way.

It is provisionally the hottest start to Wimbledon on record, with 29.7 deg C being recorded at the nearby Kew Gardens, the Met Office said.

“Wimbledon when it’s really hot is quite sweaty. Last time, we were very hot so this time, we’ve got rose in a cooler so we can do a better job,” Londoner Sean Tipper, 31, told AFP.

Mr Tipper, who was visiting with his wife, mother and aunt, added that they had also come prepared for the first day of the matches with hats and sunglasses, plus “a mini fan and good hope”. AFP