Paris/London/Rome: France recorded its hottest-ever day on Wednesday for the second day running while Britain logged its highest temperature for June as Western Europe remains in the grip of a heatwave.
The “heat dome” has claimed dozens of lives, disrupted power supplies, shut schools and cultural landmarks, as forecasters warned the extreme temperatures could persist until the end of the week.
Smashing previous records, Britain logged its highest temperature for June. The 36.1C reported by the Met Office in Gosport in Hampshire, southern England, edged above the previous June record of 35.6C set in 1957 and matched in 1976.
The Meteo France weather agency said France’s national thermal indicator – an average of temperatures measured at 30 weather stations – hit a new record of 30C, the latest in a series of never-before-registered highs. The mercury surpassed 40C in some locations, including in Paris.
The weather agency put three-quarters of France under a red alert for extreme heat starting at midday Thursday until the same time Friday. The warning encompassed tens of millions of people.
British schools closed, trains cancelled
In the UK, the heat was particularly uncomfortable, not least because so much of the country’s infrastructure was built for cooler weather.
The heat dome – a stationary high-pressure system that traps heat and humidity – took shape at a time when human-caused climate change fuels increasingly extreme weather. The UN climate agency projects that the next five years will likely shatter more heat records.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, longer and hotter with climate change, as a direct result of the fossil fuels we are releasing as a society,” said Hayley Fowler, a professor at the Centre for Climate and Environmental Resilience at Newcastle University in the northeast of England. “We can expect to have to cope with more and more of these types of events in the years to come.”
More than 1000 schools in England have closed due to the heat, and many train services have been cancelled, with passengers being urged to avoid nonessential travel in areas covered by the warning.
The red heat warning was only the second issued by UK authorities following July 2022, when temperatures exceeded 40C for the first time. The temperature could breach that level on Thursday.
In France, Italy and Spain, more than 100 million people were warned to be extra vigilant about the dangers of the heat wave.
At least 48 people have died in France from drowning since the onset of the heat wave while trying to cool off, authorities said, and two young children were killed by heat in a car.
Spain reported two elderly people had died of heatstroke after days of temperatures exceeding 40C, though conditions there began to ease on Wednesday following the hottest late-June days on record, according to national weather agency AEMET.
With the mercury rising, many of France’s major attractions, including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre in Paris, have restricted visiting hours. Schools and transportation schedules were also upended.
Tens of thousands of homes in northwest France were without power after two electrical transformers in Brittany were taken out of service late Tuesday following an explosion apparently linked to the heat wave. Around 68,000 households were still affected by the power outage on Wednesday.
Conditions in France were expected to remain stifling on Thursday, the forecaster said, extending a red alert weather warning to 72 districts across the country.
A ‘very hot day’ at pre-Wimbledon matches
On the day of extreme heat in London, Jannik Sinner dished out his own warning that he’ll be fine to defend his Wimbledon title, returning successfully to action for the first time since being sensationally derailed at a sweltering French Open.
It was only a grass-court exhibition match at the prestigious Hurlingham Club, a 15-minute drive from Wimbledon, but world No.1 Sinner looked in good nick as he defeated British No.1 Cam Norrie 6-3 6-3.
It was Sinner’s first match since his boilover second-round loss to Juan Manuel Cerundolo in Paris on May 28.
“A very hot day,” Sinner conceded in his post-match interview. “Exhibition matches, they are good because we try out a couple of things and hopefully be as good as we can then for the next week.”
Earlier, Sinner had been seen wearing a cooling vest at practice at Wimbledon.
Because of the heat warnings, the ball kids for Wednesday’s matches at Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament were kept home. Their duties were handled by “our Court Services team – who are all adults,” the All England Club said.
There was also a temporary loss of power to part of the Roehampton qualifying venue “which meant that the electronic line calling system could not function,” the club added. Heat will be looked at as a possible cause for the outage.
AP/Reuters/AAP
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