By Thomas Seythal<\/p>\n
BERLIN, June 27 (Reuters) – Germans braced for sweltering conditions on Saturday as a heatwave linked to dozens of deaths in Western Europe was forecast to move east and bring temperatures \u200capproaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) to Germany and Poland.<\/p>\n
Britain, France and Switzerland have baked in record \u200cheat in June, and the system was expected to test more records as the heatwave crosses the Rhine River.<\/p>\n
Public broadcaster ARD said a German \u200brecord of over 41 C was reached on Friday near Saarbruecken on the border with France, according to preliminary official data.<\/p>\n
In France, dozens of people including both young and old have died during the heatwave. Temperatures above 40 C have disrupted rail travel and power generation, sparked alcohol bans, suspended schools and postponed outdoor events.<\/p>\n
“The heatwave is going to peak at \u200cthe weekend, well over 40 degrees in \u2060some parts of Germany,” said Karsten Brandt, a meteorologist at weather forecasting site Donnerwetter.de.<\/p>\n
The Ironman European Championship long-distance triathlon taking place on Sunday in Frankfurt shortened the cycling and running \u2060courses due to the heat, organisers said.<\/p>\n
Struggling with the prospect of damage to infrastructure like buckling roads and swelling train tracks, some major public service providers sought to reduce traffic.<\/p>\n
German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn has given customers the option of cancelling \u200blong-distance \u200btravel bookings into early next week without charge due to the \u200bheatwave.<\/p>\n
The company said its infrastructure is under particular \u200cstrain because of sun exposure and additional risk to signals, tracks and overhead wires stemming from thunderstorms and wildfires.<\/p>\n
Parts of Germany, mainly in the southwest, have already experienced a much hotter June than usual.<\/p>\n
The most extreme heat is forecast to begin fading at the weekend, with heavy thunderstorms expected on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Across Europe, cultural landmarks have had to close, farming has suffered and some hospitals have struggled to cope.<\/p>\n
The heatwave has pushed temperatures up to 18 C above \u200ctheir seasonal average, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor, and is \u200bbeing driven by a phenomenon known as an Omega block.<\/p>\n
This weather \u200bpattern traps a bulging ball of hot air over \u200bregions for extended periods, with cooler air on its fringes.<\/p>\n
Demand for electric fans has shot \u200cup, and Asian air conditioning makers reported a \u200bEuropean sales boom.<\/p>\n
Most of the \u200bhousing stock in Northern Europe is not built to temper heat but rather to keep it in.<\/p>\n
The present heatwave will begin shifting by the end of the month, hitting Central Europe and the Balkans, the \u200bWorld Meteorological Organisation said.<\/p>\n
Scientists said the heatwave \u200cwould have been virtually impossible without manmade climate change, which has made this week’s night-time temperatures \u200b100 times more likely than they would have been even two decades ago.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Thomas Seythal, \u200bReuters Bureaux; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Thomas Seythal BERLIN, June 27 (Reuters) – Germans braced for sweltering conditions on Saturday as a heatwave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37931,5,26284,9271,34127],"class_list":["post-44302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-degrees-fahrenheit","tag-germany","tag-heatwave","tag-temperatures","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}