Temperatures set to surpass 35 deg C for over 100 million in Europe

PARIS – At least 101 million people in Europe were expected to experience temperatures in excess of 35 deg C on June 25, in a punishing and increasingly deadly heatwave hotter than the weather in parts of Africa.

France and Spain, among the worst-hit countries, began counting the toll from the extreme temperatures, with children among the victims.

Calculations by AFP news agency, based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 population projections from the European Joint Research Centre, indicated that more than 380 million people would face temperatures of over 30 deg C.

The heatwave – made worse by buildings and infrastructure unsuited to such temperatures – is being blamed by scientists on human-driven climate change.

“Europe’s savage heatwave has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell.

“It’s the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet. Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, extreme heat will keep getting worse.”

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, said the hot weather was caused by a “heat dome” of trapped air from North Africa in a low-lying high-pressure system, preventing cooler air from moving in.

“While heat domes are a natural weather phenomenon, anthropogenic climate change is making heatwaves more severe and more likely to reach record-breaking temperatures,” she added.

Most of mainland France was under extreme heat alerts on June 25, with some 63 million people out of a total population of 67 million facing temperatures of more than 30 deg C.

The heat will also surpass 30 deg C for 70 million people in Germany, 48 million in Italy and 38 million in Britain, with high temperatures also in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Temperatures are expected to fall in western Europe from June 26, but eastern Europe was on red alert with temperatures set to climb into the weekend.

Cooling off

In Spain, where new temperature records have been set for June, the MoMo monitoring system of mortality rates said 212 deaths between June 21 and June 24 could be linked to the heat.

Three deaths in northern France’s Pas-de-Calais region were “likely” caused by the heat, said the local authorities, while a three-year-old boy was found dead in a car in the suburbs of Paris, where temperatures topped 40 deg C on June 24.

The boy climbed into his family’s unlocked car while he was supposed to be napping and was found unconscious, a public prosecutor said.

Two other children have died in similar circumstances this week.

Dozens of people, from couples to families with babies, decided to sleep in hammocks and on camping mats at the Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris to try to beat the heat.

“We’ve got everything we need, really. And quite a few people hang out here, so there’s a good atmosphere,” Maissame Decosse, 26, told AFP. “It’s better to be here than indoors.”

Elsewhere, locals flocked to the Canal Saint Martin in the north of the city, some with inflatables, after the authorities allowed swimming because of the heat.

In Brussels, residents complained about the lack of public swimming facilities in the Belgian capital that made it hard for residents to cope as temperatures nudged 40 deg C.

“It’s honestly a joke for a city like Brussels with more than a million residents,” said Paul Steinbruck, co-founder of the Pool is Cool organisation.

In Germany, where temperatures were in the high 30s and expected to hit 40 deg C through the weekend, several outdoor events were cancelled.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn also told customers to avoid travel owing to a high risk of disruption from wildfires, heavy rain and thunderstorms.

‘Nature is angry’

The effects of extreme heat – from dehydration to heatstroke – are a concern for those caring for the vulnerable, including the very young and old, and those with medical conditions.

“Dehydration is a high risk for elderly residents,” said Shiny Mathappan, manager of the Kingsley Court Care Home in Hayes, England, where fruit juice and water were handed out to dementia patients in shaded areas of the garden.

“When they’ve got dementia, they forget to ask about whether they feel thirsty.”

The record for a June day was broken on June 24 in Britain, with temperatures of 35.7 deg C near Gatwick Airport, south of London, and a provisional 36.1 deg C in Gosport, south-west England.

Britain’s Met Office weather service extended a red warning for extreme heat until the night of June 26 for London and the surrounding areas, with forecasts of 37 deg C and 38 deg C that would be a new June record.

Kingsley Court resident Lucine Nazikian, 97, said the world needed to take the heat seriously – or pay the price. “Nature is angry with us because we destroy everything,” she said. AFP