Many European countries have been hit by heat waves, especially Portugal and Spain. Temperatures in Portugal have been rising since last Tuesday, reaching as high as 47 degrees Celsius, and authorities said on Saturday that 659 people had died in the heatwave over the past seven days. Neighboring Spain was also hot, with a record high of 45.7 degrees, killing 360 people. The hot and dry weather also sparked wildfires in the two countries, France, Greece and Croatia, requiring more than 10,000 people to be evacuated in what some described as “like before the end of the world”.
The Portuguese Ministry of Health said that most of the deaths from the heat wave were elderly. The death toll peaked last Thursday with 440 people; the temperature in several provinces exceeded 40 degrees that day, and the weather monitoring station in the central Viseu region recorded a high temperature of 47 degrees . The country is also experiencing severe drought. Before the current heat wave, 96% of the country’s land was in severe or extreme drought by the end of June. The temperature in Portugal dropped slightly over the weekend, reducing the number of wildfires in the past few days to two fire sites yesterday. A pilot threw a water bomb to extinguish the wildfire. Portugal has burned 30,000 hectares of land this year, the largest since the summer of 2017, when regarding 100 people died in wildfires.
UK may break record by 40 degrees
More than 3,000 people had to be evacuated in the tourist town of Mijas in the southern Spanish province of Malaga as wildfires spread across Spain and France. Some tourists said, “The fire came very quickly… At first I didn’t care, I thought it was under control, but when the fire burned towards us, I was shocked.” The wildfire in the Gironde department in southwestern France affected more than 11,000 hectares of land. More than 14,000 people have been evacuated. The French weather agency is forecasting temperatures of 41 degrees in the south on Sunday and a record-breaking temperature on Monday. There were 71 wildfires in Greece over the weekend. The UK also issued its first “extreme heat” warning, with parts of England likely to break the 2019 record of 38.7 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, reaching as high as 40 degrees.
Originally published on AM730 https://www.am730.com.hk/International/Heatwave triggers forest fires in five countries – Portugal heat kills 659, Spain 360/329067
