Heatwave hits UK amid COVID19 pandemic

Beachgoers enjoy the sunshine as they sunbathe on the beach and play in the sea in Southend on Sea, south east England, on Wednesday. Britain was bracing for a flood of visitors to its beaches as temperatures rise to 40 degrees Celsius in different parts of Europe, just days after lockdown ended and travel restrictions were lifted, with the heatwave expected to last until Friday in the south and center of the United Kingdom.

AFP

Record 42.6 degrees Celsius in Paris as Europe heatwave hits blistering peak

PARIS - Paris on Thursday baked in an all-time high temperature of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit) as a ferocious heatwave smashed records across northern Europe, sparking concerns about public health and causing new misery for rail travelers.

As records also tumbled in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, Paris beat the previous top of 40.4C set in July 1947.

Trains have been slowed in several European countries to avoid damage to the railway networks. French national operator SNCF urged travelers to delay journeys planned for Thursday, while German railway company Deutsche Bahn offered travelers a chance to change tickets free of charge.

In the sweltering French capital, authorities warned people to keep an eye on those living alone.

At the same time, the scorching weather spelled misery for millions of commuters on public transport.

"It's so hot in the metro, it's unbearable. There are so many people, no air conditioning and everyone is on top of one other," said Paris commuter Petra Ulm, 34, a clinical researcher.

The heatwave, which was expected to ease up on Friday as rain and thunderstorms move in, again focused public attention on the problems caused by climate change.

'GREAT DAY ON THE BEACH'

In Britain, temperatures reached 38.1C in Cambridge, only the second time temperatures over 100 Fahrenheit have been recorded in the UK, weather services said. It was still below the UK's all-time high of 38.5C.

Those lucky enough to be by the sea could still enjoy the weather.

"It's obviously not so good for some people, but if you've got the day off and young kids then it's great for a day on the beach," said Graham Clarke, 50, an insurance agent, enjoying the sands of Broadstairs in southeast England.

In the Netherlands, a new high Thursday of 40.4C in the south broke a record dating back to 1944.

In Amsterdam, crowds jumped into a central square fountain, while municipal workers sprayed water on bridges over the city's famed canals to stop metal structures deforming in the heat.

"I'm just trying not to move too much," said Serona Methorst, a 19-year-old Dutch student sitting under a tree with friends. "We are so used to a colder climate, people are really disturbed by this weather."

In the center of the country, Dutch police jokingly urged criminals not to plan any heists during the heatwave.

"It's tough to work now, not just for you but also for us," the police posted in a Facebook message. "Stay at home, turn on the air-conditioning."

On Thursday, Germany again hit a national record of 41.5 C in Lingen, western Germany.

The Grohnde nuclear plant in western Germany will temporarily shut down on Friday as a way to protect the environment, its operator said. Water used to cool the reactor is poured back into rivers and the shutdown is meant to protect already overheated river ecosystems.

Belgium on Thursday also reached a new record high of 40.6 degrees Celsius, on the Kleine-Brogel military base, in northeastern Belgium.

Two suspected drug smugglers had to call police in the Belgian port city of Antwerp after becoming trapped in a shipping container filled with cocaine, prosecutors said.

TRAIN DISRUPTIONS

Eurostar and Thalys rail services from Brussels to London and Paris also experienced major delays and cancellations after a cable failure the day earlier.

"I ask everyone who can avoid or delay their journeys to do so," said French Environment Minister Elisabeth Borne, advising workers who could do their jobs at home not to go to their offices.

The northern third of France, including Paris, was under a red alert while the rest of the country had a yellow warning and water-use restrictions were in force.

In Austria, a 3-year-old child died of dehydration after falling asleep in a car parked in full sunshine at the family farm, local authorities said.

'LOOK AFTER OTHERS'

France remains haunted by the early summer of 2003 when 15,000 deaths were blamed on the heat and the authorities were hit for not mobilizing fast enough.

"We need to take care of ourselves but above all others, especially those who are alone, and be able to detect the first symptoms of heatstroke," said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

Local authorities have placed restrictions on water usage in many areas due to drought-like conditions that have seen ground and river water levels fall dramatically.

A June 26-28 blast of heat in France was four degrees Celsius hotter than an equally rare June heatwave would have been in 1900, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) said this month.

One study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said the deadly weeks-long heatwave across northern Europe in 2018 would have been statistically impossible without climate change.

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Nearly 150 million people sweltering through deadly US heat wave

WASHINGTON -- The United States was sweating through a weekend of dangerously hot weather, with major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington experiencing temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

An oppressive heat wave stretching from the Midwestern plains to the Atlantic coast had nearly 150 million people struggling to stay cool amid scorching temperatures.

Heat index values -- combining the effect of heat and humidity -- could reach 110 to 115 degrees, particularly in the east, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

It warned that "dangerously high temperatures and humidity could quickly cause heat stress or heat stroke if precautions are not taken."

The heat was expected to continue through late Sunday as a high-pressure system off the Atlantic coast ushered in steamy, subtropical air.

People were being urged to stay hydrated, watch out for the sick and the elderly, stay inside as much as possible and not leave children or animals in cars.

The heat wave already claimed at least three lives, including two earlier in the week in the eastern state of Maryland. 

In Arkansas, former NFL player Mitch Petrus died Thursday after working outside his family's shop. The 32-year-old died of heat stroke, the Pulaski County coroner was quoted as saying in US media.

Heat warnings have also been issued for parts of eastern Canada.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a heat emergency. 

The New York City Triathlon, which had been scheduled for Sunday, was cancelled for the first time since its founding in 2001. 

The estimated 4,000 participants, many of whom had traveled long distances to race, will receive full refunds of entry fees of up to $399, organizers said.

The two-day OZY Fest, a food, comedy and music festival set for Central Park this weekend, was also called off. 

In Washington, a popular outdoor jazz concert at the National Galley of Art was cancelled.

'Serious, serious stuff'

New York City opened 500 cooling centers for residents.

"Saturday is going to be really, really bad, on through Sunday," de Blasio said in a warning to the city. "This is serious, serious stuff."

At least three public defenders said on Twitter that inmates in New York's notorious Rikers Island jail complex were suffering with no air conditioning, and that some guards had turned off fans as punishment, resulting in "deadly conditions." 

The Brooklyn Defender Services legal aid group said some inmates didn't have summer clothing, only long underwear provided by the group last winter.

Top officials from the city's Department of Corrections were at the facility monitoring the response to the heat wave to "protect health and safety of everyone in the facility," De Blasio wrote on Twitter. 

The department said in a statment to AFP that extra staff were on hand to distribute summer clothing, and clinics were open around the clock to treat heat-related symptoms. 

Those in units without air conditioning were given access to fans, ice, water and "multiple cool showers."

The city's electrical grid was so far handling the extra demand, which came just a week after a major outage, blamed on mechanical problems, left tens of thousands of Manhattan residents in the dark. 

In Washington, the morning low of 81 degrees was just one degree below the record set in 2015, with "a good chance to hit 100 today for the first time since 2016," The Washington Post reported.

Triple-digit temperatures in the US Northeast are unusual. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer suggested, tongue in cheek, that locals might want to seek relief in normally sweltering Miami or Phoenix, which would be up to 25 degrees cooler. 

Philadelphia looked likely to set a new record for the hottest July 20 since 1930.

In Boston, where the weather service said that Saturday and Sunday would be "major scorchers," city officials scrapped entry fees at public pools. 

In the far northwest, temperatures soared earlier this month in the state of Alaska, which straddles the Arctic Circle, with largest city Anchorage hitting an all-time high of 90 degrees.

Earlier in the week, the National Weather Service office in the Midwestern city of Omaha baked a tray of biscuits -- savory breakfast bread similar to scones -- on the dashboard of a parked car. After nearly eight hours and with temperatures on the pan reaching 185 degrees, the pastries were almost fully cooked.

Climate data showed June was the hottest month on record worldwide, with a heat wave across Europe smashing national records.

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France's June heatwave at least '5 times more likely' with climate change

PARIS - Climate change alone made the record-setting heatwave that pushed temperatures in France above 45 degrees Celsius (113F) last week at least five times more likely, an international team of scientists said Tuesday.

Compared to June weather stretching back more than a century, the peak from June 26-28 was four degrees Celsius warmer than an equally rare heatwave would have been in 1900, the World Weather Attribution team told journalists in a briefing.

The role of global warming in the devastating hot spell, which also paralyzed neighboring European countries for nearly a week, is probably much greater, said Friederike Otto, acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.

"Models are very good at representing large-scale seasonal changes in temperatures," she explained.

"On localized scales, climate models tend to underestimate the increase in temperature."

The findings, presented as a report and to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, focused on metropolitan France and the southern city of Toulouse, where climate statisticians were coincidentally meeting during the heatwave. 

Based purely on temperature records, extreme scorchers like the one last week are now 100 times more likely than in 1900, said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and co-author of the new report.

"But we are unable to say that this is just because of climate change," he said.

Air pollution, the "urban heat island" effect, soil moisture, cloud cover and a host of other factors can also affect the intensity of heatwaves.

And models designed to work on a different scale are consistently "biased" such that they underestimate temperature peaks.

France, Italy, Spain and some central European nations all posted all-time temperatures peaks, with dozens of deaths attributed to the week-long heatwave.

The final death toll is likely to be far higher, but will only show up months from now in statistical records as "excess deaths".

A 2003 heatwave in France claimed at least 15,000 lives, according to government figures. 

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France roasts in record heatwave, 2 die in Spain

PARIS/MADRID—France registered its highest temperature since records began on Friday as the death toll rose from a heatwave suffocating much of Europe.

The mercury hit 45.9 degrees Celsius (114.6 Fahrenheit) in Gallargues-le-Montueux, in the southern Provence region, weather forecaster Meteo France said, nearly 2 degrees above the previous high of 44.1 Celsius recorded in Aug. 2003.

Twelve towns in southern France saw new all-time highs on Friday and 3 experienced temperatures above 45 degrees, it said.

The World Meteorological Organization said 2019 was on track to be among the world's hottest years, and that 2015-2019 would then be the hottest 5-year period on record.

It said the European heatwave was "absolutely consistent" with extremes linked to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

Four administrative departments in France were placed on red alert, signaling temperatures of "dangerous intensity" that are more typical of Saudi Arabia.

The unusually high temperatures are forecast to last until early next week.

In Spain, where temperature peaked above 43 degrees for the second day running, wildfires raged across 60 sq km (23 sq miles) of land in the northeastern Tarragona province. Officials said firefighters battling the blazes on 20 fronts managed to avoid them from spreading.

In the central region, a fire broke out on the outskirts of Toledo, forcing the evacuation of 2 public buildings, a regional official told Reuters.

To the north in Valladolid, a man of 93 collapsed and died due to the heat, police said. And in a small town outside Cordoba, a 17-year-old died of heat-related effects after jumping into a swimming pool to cool off.

Since 1975, Spain has registered 9 heatwaves in June, including 5 in the last decade, according to the Spanish meteorological office.

In France, a boy was seriously hurt when he was thrown back by a jet of water from a fire hydrant. Some 4,000 schools were either closed or running a limited service to help working parents unable to stay at home.

State-run rail operator SNCF offered free cancellations or exchanges on long-distance trips, social workers helped homeless people cope with the heat, and French families with elderly relatives who were ill or living alone were advised to call or visit them twice a day and take them to cool places.

The greater Paris region, Ile de France, has banned more than half of cars from its roads as the stifling heat worsened air pollution, the toughest restriction provided for—although all cars were to be allowed to leave the city as school holidays began.

The cities of Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille have also restricted traffic.

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‘Worst is still to come’: Sizzling Europe battles wildfires, health risks

TARRAGONA, Spain/PARIS - Wildfires raged across Catalonia and French authorities stepped up restrictions on water use and driving in cities as swathes of western Europe remained in the grip of an intense heatwave.

Temperatures climbed towards 44 degrees Celsius in parts of northern Spain and southern France, driving many people to seek relief in the sea, rivers, lakes, fountains and swimming pools.

Spanish firefighters struggled to douse wildfires across nearly 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) in the northeastern region of Catalonia. They warned that the affected area could increase as much as fivefold because of the fierce heat and winds.

Helicopters dumped water on the fires, which raged some 80 km (50 miles) inland from the coastal town of Tarragona. There were no reports of casualties, but the regional government said some 30 people had been evacuated from farmhouses in the area.

The wildfires are among the worst Catalonia has seen in 20 years, the regional government said.

In neighboring France to the north, authorities extended restrictions on vehicles, already imposed in Paris and Lyon, to Marseille and Strasbourg in an effort to curb air pollution.

Some schools postponed summer examinations, and parts of northern France were put on drought alert, with water supplies to businesses, farmers and ordinary residents restricted. Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume announced a ban on the transportation of animals until the heatwave has ended.

Grid operator RTE said French electricity demand on Thursday was close to a summer record seen two years ago, as people turned on fans and coolers to full blast for relief from the scorching temperatures.

"Calls to the emergency services are on the rise nationwide. We are seeing the beginning of a clear impact of the heatwave. For us the worst is still to come," said Jerome Saloman, head of national public health.

He said four drownings had been recorded in France since the start of the week directly linked to the heatwave as people try to cool themselves. However, the full toll directly linked to the heatwave would only be known in the days or weeks ahead.

Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said four administrative regions in the south had been placed on red alert, the highest crisis level, with 76 others on orange alert.

“This episode of heatwave is unprecedented in France. It is exceptional in its intensity,” she told a news conference.

The red alert would mean school outings and outdoor sport and other festive activities are suspended or postponed. She cautioned joggers and other sport lovers to curb their activities.

There was at least relief for northern Germany on Thursday as temperatures slid to more normal levels for June. In Berlin it was 21 degrees Celsius, down from around 37 on Wednesday.

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Record heatwave across Northern Hemisphere

From the Arctic Circle and Scandinavia to California, Japan and North Africa, an exceptional heatwave has been sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere for several weeks, setting record high temperatures and causing drought and wildfires.

Meteorologists say the summer weather conditions are a result of climate change.

"2018 is shaping up to be one of the hottest years on record, with new temperature records in many countries," said Elena Manaenkova, deputy secretary-general of the World Meterological Organisation (WMO).

"This is no surprise," she added. "The heatwaves and extreme heat we are experiencing are consistent with what we expect as a result of climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions. 

"This is not a future scenario. It is happening now.” 

30 C in Arctic Circle

The summer weather in the north of Europe has been especially unusual with the thermostat in the Arctic Circle hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

Record temperatures were reported in northern Norway at 33 C last week, more than 15 degrees C higher than normal, according to the Norwegian meteorological institute.

Another record in Norway was set at Makkaur on the Barents Sea where the mercury in the land of the midnight sun on July 18 never dropped lower than 25 C.

And near the Arctic Circle at Kvikkjokk in Sweden temperatures climbed to 32.5 C on July 17, while the Finnish Lapland the next day saw 33.4 C, according to Meteo France.

In Russia's Siberia, the mercury hit 37.2 C at Tompo on July 9 and 35.5 C at Vanavara on June 26, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA).

Across Europe

In other parts of Europe, a heatwave has moved across Ireland and the British isles to France, though the temperatures have not set record highs.

Southern European countries, in contrast, have seen summer temperatures lower than normal, according to the WMO.

But the still hot, dry weather triggered wildfires in Greece, claiming at least 82 lives, making them Europe's deadliest this century.

41 C in Japan

In Japan, several dozen people have died in the scorching heat which reached a national record of 41.1 C at Kamagaya on Monday, official data showed.

The same day it reached more than 40 C for the first time in Tokyo's metropolitan region.

African record?

In the Sahara desert of Algeria on July 5, the mercury soared to 51.3 C, which was probably "the highest ever recorded in Algeria by reliable instruments", the WMO said.

It is likely a record for the African continent, since reliable records began, according to Meteo France.

But if the WMO recognises data from Africa's colonial period as reliable, the 55 C temperature reached in Tunisia in 1931 would still be considered as the African record.

Neighbouring Morocco has also seen a new national record temperature at 43.4 C on July 3 at Bouarfa, the WMO said.

And in the Middle East, on the coast of Oman on the Arabian Peninsula, the temperature never fell below 42.6 C, even at night, on June 28, which could be the highest minimal temperature ever registered there, the WMO said.

California's Death Valley

In the United States, California has been under scorching heat, including record temperatures on July 6 of 48.9 C in Chino in the west of the state, and the next day 47.2 C in the Van Nuys neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

At the Furnace Creek station in the Mojave Desert's Death Valley on July 8, the mercury registered 52 C -- still below the 56.7 C hit on July 10, 1913, although the historic world record is contested by some experts.

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Ice cream keeps Rio zoo animals cool in heatwave

RIO DE JANEIR0 - Brazil - Ice cream, fruit and copious helpings of frozen meat helped keep the sweltering inhabitants of Rio's zoo cool Tuesday as temperatures soared.

Zoo staff handed out the treats as the thermometer touched 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Chimpanzee Paulinho, 30, bagged two ice creams before bounding off to seek shade, while orangutan Else, 35, and her daughter Tanga, 20, gobbled an assortment of fruit.

Carla the elephant wolfed down 50 kilos (110 pounds) of ice cream dragged in by her handler, while Gabi, an eight-year-old jaguar, preferred to slurp on a hunk of frozen meat.

"The animals have a problem with the heat like all of us -- sunstroke, dehydration, apathy. So we are taking measures to deal with the problems the heat can generate," zookeeper Karla Cunha told AFP.

The zoo has spent weeks preparing stocks of frozen food for the hot and sticky weather which assails Rio this time of year, high summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

The zoo also must ensure the animals have access to water -- via pools or sprinklers. Meanwhile vegetation is left untrimmed to ensure maximum shade.

Providing cool meals "refreshes the animal and stimulates memory function, as well as the palate," Cunha said.

She noted that some of the meat-eaters, notably the tiger, lie on top of the meat as an additional means of keeping cool.

Watching Gabi the jaguar take a pre-lunch pool dip, visitor Aline Montez wished she could join.

"Look how cool he is over there while we're here baking in the heat," Montez quipped.

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