As hot as the apocalypse in Europe, the fields are burning, tens of thousands of people are evacuated

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Jean-Luc Gleyze, an official at Gironde, told the BBC that the fires continued to grow in La-Teste-de-Buch and Landiras because the heat and winds made it difficult to extinguish the fires.

“We have a fire that continues to grow … it’s a very, very big blaze,” Gleyze said.

The heatwave has prompted authorities to issue warnings described as “hot as doomsday” in southwestern France, the AFP news agency said.

Very hot and scorching weather also caused fires in dozens of points in other European regions.

Fires burned in parts of Spain, Portugal and Greece.

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In Spain and Portugal, more than 1,000 people have died from the heat in recent days.

In the province of Zamora, in northwestern Spain, fires are smoldering in fields. In recent days, a shepherd and a firefighter died.

In the UK, temperatures are predicted to reach 41 degrees C, the highest in history.

The Meteorological Agency issued extreme heat wave warnings for Monday (18/07) and Tuesday (19/07) for most of the UK, from London and the south to York and Manchester.

The previous hottest temperature in the UK hit 38.7C in Cambridge in 2019.

London will be one of the hottest places in the world this Monday (18/07) with temperatures hotter than Western Sahara and the Caribbean.

Reuters Hot fires in Spain have left at least two people dead in recent days.

The British capital is expected to be hotter than Dakhla in Western Sahara (24C), Nassau in the Bahamas (32C), Kingston in Jamaica (33C), Malaga, Spain (28C) and Athens, Greece (35C).

Hot temperatures will continue Tuesday (19/07) with the weather at night expected to be mid-20C, before dropping on Wednesday (20/07).

This is the first time the UK Meteorological Agency has issued a “red alert” since the system was implemented last year.

The warning means temperatures “will have far-reaching impacts on communities and infrastructure”.

A number of schools are planned to finish earlier than the usual 15:30 local time.

The rail network asked residents to stay at home and only travel when necessary for this Monday and Tuesday. A number of rail networks have announced travel cancellations and train speeds have also been slowed.

ReutersResidents on the London subway.

Britain had experienced a heatwave in 1976 but the BBC’s weather reporter Simon King said temperatures for Monday and Tuesday this week were 10C warmer than the UK has experienced before.

“With temperatures like this, the impact on health needs to be taken into account,” he said.

In line with the “red alert” issued by the Meteorological Agency, the UK government categorizes this condition as a “national emergency.”

Ambulance capacity will be increased.

The London Ambulance Service said they receive calls about 7,000 times a day as temperatures continue to rise and the number of calls is expected to rise again from an average of 5,500 calls a day.

BBC

Heat waves occur when the world average temperature rises more than 1C from pre-industrial times.

The weather on Earth is currently the hottest in 125,000 years, according to the UN’s climate science agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

We know what causes it – greenhouse gases from fossil fuels like coal and gas. The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is currently at its highest level in two million years and is increasing, the IPCC said.

If all the promises made by various countries at the climate conference in Glasgow last year, UN COP26, are implemented, then the temperature increase by the end of this century is estimated to reach 2.4C.

The bad news is that CO2 emissions are on the rise. If not reduced by 2030, the air temperature will increase even higher. It may be as high as 4C by the end of the century, according to scientists.

What does the increase in Earth’s average temperature mean? This means that heat waves like those in the UK and other European countries will be more frequent and higher.

Heat waves are becoming more frequent and longer lasting. The nine hottest days in the UK have occurred since 1990.

The world has warmed by around 1.1C since the industrial age began and temperatures will continue to rise unless countries around the world reduce emissions drastically.

High temperatures also hit much of Europe and North Africa, causing bushfires to spread from Greece to Morocco.

Thousands of people have been evacuated by bushfires in France and Spain.

More than 1,000 people have died from hot temperatures in Portugal and Spain recently.

BBC

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