{"id":75417,"date":"2026-06-21T15:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T15:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/75417\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T15:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T15:58:12","slug":"europe-hits-40oc-as-heatwave-threatens-tourism-industry-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/75417\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe hits 40\u00baC as heatwave threatens tourism industry, wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A severe \u2060heatwave gripped much of Europe on Sunday, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), prompting nationwide warnings, transport disruption and signs of strain on wildlife and at tourist hotspots.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The heat surge on June 21, the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and typically the start of the three hottest months of the year, raised concerns of an early and persistent onset of \u200cextreme conditions.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">After several days of temperatures above 35 degrees, Italian authorities issued a red alert for June 21 in eight cities, including Bologna, Florence, Milan, and Turin.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In Rome, pilgrims in St Peter\u2019s Square used parasols and umbrellas to shield themselves from the blazing sun as the Pope led a traditional Sunday prayer from a window of the Apostolic Palace.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The spike in temperatures is being driven by a mass of hot air moving north from the Sahara, fuelled by a strong high-pressure system known as the \u201cAfrican anticyclone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"People refill their water bottles from a fountain in Green Park during a heatwave as the UK experienced record temperatures for the month of May, in London on May 25. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a399653f-7708-424c-a200-073354f17055_71690e84.jpg\" title=\"People refill their water bottles from a fountain in Green Park during a heatwave as the UK experienced record temperatures for the month of May, in London on May 25. Photo: Reuters\"\/>People refill their water bottles from a fountain in Green Park during a heatwave as the UK experienced record temperatures for the month of May, in London on May 25. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Meteorologists say the system is \u2060creating a so-called \u201cheat dome,\u201d trapping hot air over western and central Europe and allowing temperatures to build day after day. Madrid residents and tourists used fans \u200cand drank plenty of cold drinks as they browsed the city\u2019s famous El Rastro flea market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A severe \u2060heatwave gripped much of Europe on Sunday, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit),&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[41305,41306,1820,41053,4,90,92,35446,172,6517,5536,8542,3838,2522,41307],"class_list":["post-75417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-african-anticyclone","tag-apostolic-palace","tag-berlin","tag-bologna","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-iberian-peninsula","tag-italy","tag-madrid","tag-mallorca","tag-milan","tag-paris","tag-rome","tag-sahara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}