2023-07-19 19:27:18
While Greece is undergoing a heat wave, boosted by global warming, two forest fires are still underway west of Athens, Wednesday July 19. To deal with it, 230 Romanian, Slovak and Polish firefighters will be sent to Greece by Friday as part of European mutual aid, the firefighting services announced. Athens is expecting a new heat wave on Thursday, with highs of 44°C. France still has nine departments on heatwave orange vigilance. Follow the evolution in our direct.
Thirteen departments affected by alerts. For Wednesday, Météo-France placed nine departments on orange alert. These are Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Hérault, Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Var where peaks above 40° are expected, Vaucluse, Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse. This list is completed by eight other departments classified yellow, namely Ardèche, Drôme, Hautes-Alpes and Pyrénées-Orientales.
Records broken on Tuesday. The thermometer exceeded 40°C on Tuesday for the first time in Verdun (40.6°C at 550 meters above sea level), in Ariège, and in Serralongue (40.4°C at 700m), in the Pyrenees -Orientales, according to provisional values recorded at 5 p.m. by Météo-France. Temperatures also broke records, including Alpe d’Huez (1,860m) with 29.5°C, Renno, in Corsica (755m) with 38.3°C, Aups, in the Var (497m) with 38 ,6°C, Vauvenargues in the Bouches-du-Rhône (565m) with 37.3°C. In all these municipalities, these records are 8 to 11.9°C above normal for the season.
The heat far from disappearing at night. In its Wednesday bulletin, Météo-France also warns of the great mildness noted at night. “We measure at 5 a.m.: 26°C in Montpellier and Béziers, 25°C in Marseille and Nice, 24°C in Arles. It is also very hot in Corsica, with temperatures between 24 and 29 degrees.” The “tropical nights”, during which the mercury does not drop below 20°C, are much less restorative for the body, recalls the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance on his site.
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