Temperatures are soaring across western Europe as the third major heat wave to hit the region this year fuels wildfire danger, strains water supplies and tests power grids.<\/p>\n
The latest spell of hot weather is being driven by a high-pressure heat dome, similar to the one that shattered records across much of the continent last month, though temperatures aren\u2019t expected to reach the same extremes. The pattern is spreading across France, Spain and the U.K. this week, with heat-wave conditions already seen in southeast England, according to the U.K. Met Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be difficult to see anything other than above-average temperatures this month,\u201d said James Peacock, head meteorologist at Leeds-based weather analytics firm MetSwift.<\/p>\n
Climate change is making Europe\u2019s heat waves longer, more frequent and more intense. Repeated bouts of extreme temperatures and scarce rainfall are drying out vegetation and heightening wildfire risk. Meteorologists say a developing El Nino and unusually warm seas in the North Atlantic could help keep heat locked over the region at least through the middle July.<\/p>\n
U.K. health authorities issued amber heat warnings for the southern half of England, where temperatures in London are forecast to exceed 30C (86F) through the week and peak at 33C on Thursday. The most intense levels are expected further south. Parts of southwest France are forecast to approach 40C on Tuesday, while temperatures could reach 42C near the Mediterranean coast on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Meteo-France.<\/p>\n
Amber warnings are also in place across much of France and eastern Portugal, while Spain\u2019s weather agency AEMET issued red alerts for parts of the country\u2019s northeast, where highs could also reach 42C.<\/p>\n
The prolonged run of hot, dry weather is heightening wildfire danger across the region. The European Union has deployed a record number of firefighters, supported by 22 firefighting aircraft, to help countries tackle blazes this summer, a European Commission spokesperson said Monday. Authorities in France, Spain, Portugal and Greece have all warned of elevated wildfire risk this week.<\/p>\n
The heat is also putting pressure on critical infrastructure. Water consumption in France has increased by as much as 20%, including in rural and agricultural areas, according to preliminary estimates from the National Federation of Utilities.<\/p>\n
Electricite de France SA said on Tuesday that the 1,310-megawatt Golfech reactor is due to be offline until July 16 amid environmental concerns prompted by rising temperatures. EDF has also warned that it may\u00a0have to limit output from other nuclear plants due to low water levels in the Meuse River and high temperatures in the Garonne and Rhone rivers.<\/p>\n
Health authorities are still calculating the human toll from the continent\u2019s early heat waves. Germany has recorded more than 5,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking June hot spell, the Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday. Officials in France said there were more than 2,000 more deaths than expected. Over 1,300 people in Spain have likely died due to extreme heat since May 15, according to estimates from the The Institute of Health Carlos III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Temperatures are soaring across western Europe as the third major heat wave to hit the region this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2574,34,1958,1707,14926,8,6613,1728],"class_list":["post-54900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-climate-change","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-heat-waves","tag-japan","tag-sustainability","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}