The heat wave plaguing the northern hemisphere of the planet seems to be only in its infancy. From Europe to China via the United States, temperatures continue to soar.
This record heat wave is hitting Italy in particular where, from north to south, historic temperature records are expected in the coming days. Sunday July 16, sixteen cities are on red alert across the country, with temperatures expected to range from 36°C to 37°C from Rome to Bologna, before a dreaded peak early next week.
“It’s the furnace. You can’t stay too long in the same place,” Veronika Niederlovi, 16, a Czech tourist who came to visit Rome, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday morning. According to the daily Il Messaggero, two amateur footballers aged 48 and 51 died on Friday evening after illness probably due to the heat, during matches in the Naples region (South).
The Italian meteorological service says it fears “the most intense heat wave of the summer but also one of the most intense of all time”. The north of the country should not be spared, with 38 ° C expected Tuesday in Milan.
French agriculture minister harshly criticized
In Germany, the highest temperatures on Saturday were measured in the Bavarian town of Möhrendorf-Kleinseebach (37.9 ° C). In addition, 35°C was recorded in Berlin and 34°C in Munich.
In France, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, was severely criticized on Saturday, in particular by the paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, for having assured that the temperatures were “fairly normal for a summer”. Other influential personalities reacted, such as agroclimatology specialist Serge Zaka. “When will our politicians understand and take on the challenges of climate change? “, he lamented on Twitter.
June was the second hottest month ever recorded in France, where several departments have been placed on heat wave orange vigilance since Tuesday.
Greece is also suffering from a heat wave which forced authorities to close the Acropolis of Athens during the hottest hours of the day on Sunday for the third day in a row, when temperatures could reach 41 ° C in the country. The Red Cross teams, deployed at the foot of the building to help tourists, have intervened “dozens of times” to rescue visitors who have suffered in particular from discomfort or shortness of breath in recent days.
In Spain, a new wave of heat is expected between Monday and Wednesday after a brief respite this weekend after a week when temperatures exceeded 40 ° C in Andalusia (South) as well as on the Canary Islands. “This new wave will be brief but intense: we should exceed 42°C”, wrote the Meteorological Agency on Twitter.
Prudence
North Africa is also affected. In Morocco, a new heat wave is announced until Tuesday, with temperatures varying between 37 ° C and 47 ° C in several provinces, according to the general direction of meteorology.
In Asia, several provinces in southern and southeast China will experience high temperatures over the weekend, reaching 35°C to 40°C, according to the Central Meteorological Observatory. In parts of the Northwest, some cities could even experience temperatures exceeding 40°C.
In Japan, the authorities have called on the population to be careful as temperatures are expected to reach 39 ° C on Sunday and Monday in the east of the country, according to the local forecast agency.
” Dizziness “
On the other side of the globe, the southern United States is roasting in the heat: tens of millions of Americans, from California to Texas, have experienced dangerously high temperatures that are expected to peak over the weekend .
In Phoenix, metropolis of Arizona, in the south-west of the country, nearly 44 ° C were recorded on Saturday, the sixteenth day in a row of maximum exceeding 43 ° C, and meteorologists expect that the mercury reaches 46°C.
“When I drink a glass of water, I get dizzy, I feel like throwing up from the heat,” says Juan, a 28-year-old laborer who gave only his first name and works on a construction site. of Houston, Texas, outside in the blistering heat.
In California, in Death Valley – one of the hottest places on earth – new temperature peaks are expected on Sunday, possibly up to 54°C, after 48°C were recorded there on Saturday noon. In the south of the state, firefighters have been fighting since Friday against several very violent fires which have ravaged more than 1,214 hectares and led to the evacuation of the population.
Smoke from the fires in Canada, where more than 500 fires are still out of control, had already led to several episodes of heavy air pollution in the northeastern United States in June.
A record month of July
In Jordan, plagued by a heat wave that exceeded 40°C in some regions, relief workers are also fighting fires in the forests of Ajloun (North).
Globally, June was the hottest month ever measured, according to the European Copernicus and American NASA and NOAA agencies. Then the first full week of July was in turn the hottest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing the strength, duration and frequency of heat waves, experts say. Heat is one of the deadliest weather events, the WMO said. In the summer of 2022, high temperatures in Europe caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.
