MADRID — A heat wave that stretched across Europe this week, bringing a record high temperature of nearly 112 degrees Fahrenheit in France, has set off wildfires and led to the death of at least two people.
Temperatures reached new highs in Spain as well, and elsewhere in France on Friday, soaring well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius, in some areas, although the heat eased in Central and Eastern Europe. Meteorologists said temperatures were expected to drop across the continent in coming days.
Spain’s official weather agency placed seven provinces under the highest heat alert level on Friday. Such a “red alert” had been issued only once before in June, in 2015.
At least two deaths have been attributed to the weather this week, Spanish officials said: a 17-year old farm laborer in Córdoba and an 80-year-old in Valladolid.
While experts have yet to draw a firm connection between this relatively early — and extreme — heat wave and global warming, it fits a clear overall trend. As greenhouse gas emissions lead to a rise in global temperatures, heat waves around the world are occurring more often, and they are hotter and last longer.
Hundreds of firefighters were struggling on Friday to control a wildfire in Catalonia, Spain’s northeastern region, after extreme temperatures caused mismanaged manure on a farm to ignite, officials said.
By midday, the fire had burned more than 16,000 acres. Nearby villages were evacuated, the Spanish defense ministry deployed aerial and land reinforcements, and firefighters had been sent from neighboring regions.
Miquel Buch, the Catalonian interior minister, told reporters on Friday morning that while firefighters were making progress, the day would prove particularly challenging as temperatures were expected to stay above 40 degrees Celsius.
“We’re facing the worst day of this heat wave,” Mr. Buch said, noting that the fire could destroy nearly 50,000 acres if not brought under control.
The Iberian Peninsula has a history of deadly forest fires, including one in Portugal two years ago that killed more than 60 people, most of whom were trapped in their cars after the flames cut off a road on which they were traveling. That summer, a fire in the Spanish province of León destroyed almost 25,000 hectares, and an additional 35 people died that October in separate fires in Portugal and northwestern Spain.
France remained on high alert, as temperatures reached a record 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 Fahrenheit) on Friday in the southern town of Carpentras in Vaucluse, surpassing a record set in 2003. Four southern regions were placed on an unusual red alert, the country’s highest. Government officials warned people to stay indoors, especially children, and to avoid exercising in the heat. In Paris, dozens of fire hydrants were opened overnight on Wednesday.
Parisians bathed in the murky waters of the Canal de l’Ourcq in the city’s northeast and in the fountains at Trocadéro across from the Eiffel Tower, and they took to the city’s northern parks until late into the night: anything to escape the heat. The Buttes Chaumont park remained open all night, and many took advantage, while swimming pools also extended opening hours.
While daytime temperatures have been extreme, some daily minimum temperatures have also reached records. The French cities of Nantes, Limoges, Poitiers and Toulouse all recorded their hottest nights ever on Thursday.
The French authorities have sought to protect children from the heat, closing schools in 225 towns and suspending more than 4,000 classes. Important middle-school examinations have already been pushed forward into next week, when cooler temperatures are expected to return.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe urged citizens to watch out for vulnerable neighbors.
“A few days ago, some may have thought that we were doing too much, that we were exaggerating our capacity to foresee and make decisions ahead of the situation,” Mr. Philippe said. “I think that the intensity of the phenomenon we’ve been seeing since yesterday, today and until tomorrow, shows that there was no overreaction but rather necessary preparation.”
In Germany, the authorities warned on Friday that drinking water reserves were running dangerously low after days of high temperatures. In the country’s west and southwest, the authorities asked residents to refrain from washing cars, watering lawns and filling swimming pools. Anyone found wasting water could face a fine of 1,000 euros, or about $1,140, in some places, officials warned.
Several wildfires had broken out in the state of Brandenburg, Berlin’s region. Firefighters were still working to extinguish pockets of a blaze that have been burning since Monday.
Source : Nytimes
