LONDON —
Britain and
France went on heat wave alert on Monday facing record temperatures
as southwest Europe wilted under a scorching sun and ferocious wildfires
devoured more forests.
اضافة اعلان
Forecasters in
Britain warned of havoc in a country unprepared for the onslaught of extreme
heat that authorities said was putting lives at risk.
The mercury was set
to rise to 38°C in
London Monday — not far below Britain’s all-time record of
38.7°C — and could breach the 40°C mark for the first time by Tuesday,
meteorologists said.
Scientists blame
climate change and predict more frequent and intense episodes of extreme
weather.
Across the Channel,
firefighters failed to contain two massive fires in France’s southwest that
have created apocalyptic scenes of destruction.
For six days,
armies of firefighters and a fleet of water bombing aircraft have struggled
against blazes that have mobilized much of France’s entire firefighting
capacity.
Forecasters have
put 15 French departments on the highest state of alert for extreme temperatures,
including in the western Brittany region where the Atlantic coastal city of
Brest was expected to hit 40°C Monday, nearly twice its usual July temperature
average.
By early afternoon,
Brest had already beaten its all-time record of 35.2°C set in 1949.
The European heat
wave, spreading north, is the second to engulf parts of the southwest of the
continent within only weeks.
‘Heat apocalypse’
Blazes burning in France,
Greece, Portugal, and Spain have destroyed
thousands of hectares of land and forced thousands of residents and
holidaymakers to flee.
In France’s Landes
forest, in the southwest Aquitaine region, temperatures “will be above 42
degrees Celsius” on Monday, forecaster Olivier Proust said.
In the Gironde
region, further north, firefighters on Monday continued their battle against
forest blazes that have devoured nearly 14,000 hectares since Tuesday.
An area of 9km long
and 8km wide was still ablaze near the Dune de Pilat, Europe’s highest sand
dune, turning picturesque landscapes, popular campsites, and pristine beaches
into a scorching mess.
Another 8,000
people were being evacuated near the dune Monday as changing winds blew thick
smoke into residential areas, officials said.
“The smoke is
toxic,” firefighter spokesman
Arnaud Mendousse told AFP. “Protecting the
population is a matter of public health.”
The evacuations
added to the 16,000 tourists or residents already forced to decamp in France,
many to emergency shelters.
“In some
southwestern areas, it will be a heat apocalypse,” meteorologist Francois
Gourand told AFP.
In Spain, fire
burning in the northwestern province of Zamora claimed the life of a
69-year-old shepherd, regional authorities said, the second death after that of
a fireman a day before in the same area.
Authorities have
reported around 20 wildfires still raging from the south to Galicia in the far
northwest, where blazes have destroyed around 4,500 hectares of land.
In Portugal, almost
the entire country remained on high alert for wildfires despite a slight drop
in temperatures which had hit 47°C — a record for the month of July — last
Thursday.
‘Get on with it’
Fires have killed two,
injured around 60, and destroyed between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of land in
Portugal.
In Britain, the government, already on the ropes
after a series of scandals and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation, drew
fresh criticism for failing to take the situation seriously enough.
“This is serious heat that could actually,
ultimately, end in people’s deaths because it is so ferocious,” College of
Paramedics chief executive Tracy Nicholls told Sky News.
The Sun tabloid headlined its coverage of the heat
“British Bake Off”, observing that the “scorcher” was making the UK hotter than
Ibiza where, indeed, temperatures were a comparatively paltry 30°C on Monday.
Britain’s chief meteorologist Paul Davies said the
heat wave was “entirely consistent with climate change”, telling Sky News the
“brutality” of the heat wave was “astounding” but could become a regular
occurrence “by the end of the century”.
Network Rail, which is responsible for rail
infrastructure, said the main east coast route out of London King’s Cross to
York and Leeds would be shut between 1100 GMT and 1900 GMT on Tuesday.
But some in Britain, like 64-year-old plumber Dave
Williams, were dismissive of the wall-to-wall coverage of the heat wave.
“Just get on with it,” he told AFPTV. “The way they
talk about it is as if we’ve never had a summer.”
Among people heading to the beaches for respite was
Abu Bakr, a bank worker, who also put the British heat wave into perspective.
“I come from Sudan,” he said as he relaxed on
Brighton beach; “40, 45 degrees is just the norm. This is as good as it can
be.”
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
