In large parts of Germany it will be hot again this Monday: The German Weather Service (DWD) expects temperatures between 31 and 36 degrees. Showers and thunderstorms will come from the northwest on Tuesday night. It will be cooler on Tuesday. For the rest of the week, the DWD expects warm, summery weather. However, what is still missing is widespread rain. In other parts of the world – from California to Spain to Greece – the drought continues to have devastating consequences: forest fires are raging.
There is no end in sight to the fires in Greece. For Monday, the fire brigade issued the second highest warning level for parts of central Greece – the risk of forest fires there is considered “very high”. The capital Athens and the surrounding area as well as the island of Euboea are affected. But the danger is also “high” in the rest of the country. In the past week, the fire brigade registered more than a hundred sources of fire every day. According to meteorologists, the drought continues, the temperatures should remain very high and locally rise to up to 40 degrees. In some areas there is also strong wind, which heats up the fire – for example on the island of Lesbos, where villages in the southern part of the island were evacuated at the weekend.
The situation eased in Spain, but the series of forest fires continues. A fire in Tenerife was particularly worrying. The flames have so far destroyed more than 24 square kilometers on the popular Canary Island, regional president Ángel Víctor Torres said on Sunday afternoon. In the affected area in the north of the island, almost 600 residents of La Guancha and four other communities were rescued on Saturday. 2022 is already the most devastating forest fire year for Spain since records began.
Although a particularly long and intense heat wave ended just a few days ago, extremely high temperatures continue to plague Spaniards and tourists in the country. In Andalusia in southern Spain, up to 44 degrees were registered on Sunday, in Mallorca the mercury column climbed up to 37 degrees. For Monday, up to 40 degrees are expected for the center and the north-east of the island, which is so popular with Germans. At Ballermann on Playa de Palma it should be “only” 34 degrees warm.
There is now a partial all-clear for the fires on France’s Atlantic coast: the fire in La Teste-de-Buch is considered to have been extinguished. All residents were allowed to return to their homes at the weekend, according to the responsible prefecture. The fire in Landiras, on the other hand, is under control. However, there are still around 30 active sources of fire and there is a risk that the fire will flare up again, it said.
Across the Atlantic, in California, a rapidly spreading fire is also threatening the famous US National Park Yosemite. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in the affected area. The so-called Oak Fire, which raged over more than 63 square kilometers, destroyed ten buildings and damaged five others, according to the Cal Fire authority responsible. Almost 2,700 houses are threatened by the fire that broke out on Friday afternoon for reasons that are still unknown.