Britain and France on Monday awaited record temperatures as a heat wave gripped southwestern Europe and wildfires ravaged more forests.
And meteorologists in Britain warned of confusion in a country that is not equipped for severe weather phenomena, which the authorities say are endangering people’s lives.
London is expected to record 38 degrees Celsius, approaching the record level of 38.7 degrees, and might exceed 40 degrees for the first time on Tuesday, the meteorologist warned.
Scientists blame this on climate change and expect more frequent and severe extreme weather events.
On the other side of the English Channel in southwestern France, firefighters were unable to contain two large fires that caused massive damage.
Over the course of six days, armies of firefighters and a fleet of firefighting aircraft struggled to put out the fires.
And meteorological centers warned 15 French regions of the danger of high temperatures, including the Brittany region (west), where the coastal city of Brest overlooking the Atlantic, expects the temperature to record 40 degrees Celsius on Monday, twice higher than its normal rates in the month of July.
By the early followingnoon hours, Brest had surpassed the record temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius recorded in 1949.
The heat wave, stretching north, is the second to sweep parts of southwestern Europe in a matter of weeks.
– “Hell”
Fires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have destroyed thousands of hectares of land and forced thousands of people and tourists to flee their homes.
In the Land Forest in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France, meteorologist Olivier Proust predicted that the temperature would “exceed 42 degrees Celsius” on Monday.
To the north, in the Gironde region, firefighters are continuing their efforts to put out a forest fire that has ravaged regarding 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) since last Tuesday.
The fires were still burning in an area nine kilometers long and eight kilometers wide, near the highest sand dunes in Europe, Pilate, turning this picturesque area of camping sites and pristine beaches into charred spaces.
The authorities were evacuating another 8,000 people near the dunes on Monday, at a time when changing winds caused thick black smoke to spread over residential areas.
“The smoke is toxic,” firefighting spokesman Arno Mendos told AFP, adding that “protecting the population is a public health issue.”
16,000 people, tourists and residents, were forced to leave their places of residence and homes, while many of them took refuge in temporary shelters.
“In some areas of the southwest, the heat will be like hell,” said meteorologist Francois Gourad.
In Spain, regarding 29 fires are still raging and out of control in different parts of the country from the south to Galicia in the far northwest, where the fires have destroyed regarding 4,500 hectares of land.
A firefighter died on Sunday in a fire in Losacio in northwestern Spain, while another died of burns he had sustained in the province of Zamora in northwestern Spain as well.
In Portugal, a forest fire alert continues, although a slight drop in temperature was recorded last Thursday, which reached 47 degrees Celsius, a record level for the month of July.
The fires killed two people, caused regarding 60 injuries, and destroyed between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of land in Portugal.
In Britain, the government, mired in crises, the latest of which was the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has come under more criticism for its failure to take the situation seriously enough.
