Closure of the Acropolis, deaths of Italian amateur footballers, violent fires in California… Since the beginning of the summer, the heat wave episodes have followed one another and intensified.
A record heatwave continues around the world on Sunday, from Europe to the United States to China, forcing authorities to take drastic measures to deal with these heatwaves and new fires that are examples of global warming.
Italy is experiencing a heatwave from north to south with historic temperature records expected in the coming days. On Sunday, 16 cities across the country are on red alert. Temperatures are expected to hit 36/37C from Rome to Bologna before hitting a feared peak early next week. “It’s the oven. You can’t stay in the same place for too long,” Veronika Niederlovi, 16, a Czech tourist visiting Rome, told Agence France-Presse on Saturday morning.
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According to the daily Il Messaggero, two amateur footballers, aged 48 and 51, died on Friday night during matches in the Naples region (south) after an illness likely caused by the heat. The Italian Meteorological Center fears “the most intense heat wave of the summer, but also one of the most intense on record”. The north of the peninsula is unlikely to be spared, as temperatures of 38°C are expected in Milan on Tuesday.
policy criticized
In Germany, the highest temperatures were measured on Saturday in Möhrendorf-Kleinseebach in Bavaria (37.9 degrees). In addition, 35°C were measured in Berlin and 34°C in Munich.
In France, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau was heavily criticized on Saturday, notably by paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, for assuring that temperatures were “fairly normal for a summer”.
Other influential figures reacted, such as agricultural climatologist Serge Zaka. “When will our politicians understand and face up to the challenges of climate change?” he lamented on Twitter.
June was the second hottest month on record in France, where several departments have been under heat alert since Tuesday.
Acropolis closed
Greece is also suffering from a heat wave that forced the authorities to close Athens’ Acropolis on Sunday for the third straight day during the hottest hours of the day, when temperatures in the country could reach 41C. Red Cross teams stationed at the foot of the Acropolis to help tourists intervened “dozens of times” to rescue visitors who had been particularly unwell or short of breath in recent days.
A fresh heatwave is expected in Spain between Monday and Wednesday, after a brief pause this weekend at the end of a week in which temperatures topped 40C in both Andalucia (south) and the Canary Islands . “This new wave will be short but intense: we should exceed 42°,” wrote the Meteorological Agency (Aemet) on Twitter.
40°C in China
North Africa is also affected. According to the Directorate General for Meteorology (DGM), a new heat wave has been announced in Morocco by Tuesday, with temperatures in several provinces fluctuating between 37 and 47 °C.
In Asia, according to the Central Meteorological Observatory, there will be high temperatures of 35 to 40 °C in several provinces in southern and southeastern China over the weekend. In parts of the North West, temperatures could even exceed 40°C in some cities.
In Japan, the authorities called on the population to exercise caution as temperatures of up to 39 °C are expected in the east of the country on Sunday and Monday, according to the local meteorologist.
Wildfires in California
On the other side of the world, the heat is sizzling in the U.S. southern: tens of millions of Americans from California to Texas have experienced dangerously high temperatures that are expected to peak over the weekend. Phoenix, a metropolis in Arizona in the southwestern United States, was nearing 44C on Saturday, the 16th straight day of highs above 43C, and forecasters expect the mercury temperature to hit 46C.
“When I drink a glass of water I get dizzy, I want to throw up because of the heat,” says Juan, a 28-year-old, first-name worker who works at a construction site in Houston, Texas, outside in the sweltering Heat.
In California’s Death Valley – one of the hottest places on earth – fresh temperature spikes are expected on Sunday, possibly as high as 54C after 48C was recorded there on Saturday noon. In the south of the state, American firefighters have been fighting several very violent fires since Friday that have devastated more than 1,214 hectares and led to the evacuation of the population.
Smoke from fires in Canada, where more than 500 fires are spiraling out of control, had already led to several episodes of severe air pollution over the US northeast in June. In Jordan, relief workers are battling fires in Ajloun (North) forests amid a heatwave that has topped 40ºC in certain regions.
A firefighter in front of the flames of the Rabbit Fire in Riverside County, California July 15, 2023. DAVID SWANSON / AFP
60,000 deaths from heat
According to the European Copernicus and American NASA and NOAA authorities, June was the hottest month ever measured worldwide. Then the first full week of July was the hottest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
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Greenhouse gas emissions increase the strength, duration and frequency of heat waves, experts say. According to the WMO, heat is one of the deadliest weather events. According to a recent study, the high temperatures last summer caused more than 60,000 deaths in Europe alone.