Southern Europe braces for second heat storm in a week

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Southern Europe is bracing for a second heat storm in a week, with Spain, Italy and Greece, along with Morocco and other Mediterranean countries being told temperature records could be broken on Tuesday.

A new anticyclone that pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday could lift temperatures above the record 48.8C (120F) seen in Sicily in August 2021, and follows last week’s Cerberus heatwave.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said the next week could bring the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe in a heatwave called Charon, after the Greek mythological boatman who ferries souls to the underworld.

The human-caused climate crisis is supercharging extreme weather around the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters, from heatwaves to floods to wildfires.

On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization said the planet experienced the hottest few days on record in the first few days of July, after a June that was the hottest on record according to the ESA.

A study recently published in Nature Medicine said more than 60,000 people died because of last year’s summer heatwaves across Europe, with the highest mortality rates seen in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Italy sweltered in exceptionally high temperatures and humidity levels on Sunday in what the weather website, ILMeteo.it described as a “heat storm”, and the situation will intensify with the arrival on Monday of another anticyclone that will push the mercury to possible highs of 47C in southern areas of Sardinia, and 45C or 46C in parts of Puglia and Sicily.

Temperatures in Rome, which is packed with tourists, are poised to climb to 42C or 43C on Tuesday. Sixteen Italian cities, including Rome, Florence, Bologna, Bari, Cagliari and Palermo, have been put on “red alert” by the health ministry, meaning the heat is so intense it poses a threat to the health of the entire population.

Nighttime temperatures remain above 20C, making it a struggle for people to sleep.

Italy is one of the European countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with extreme weather events within the past 13 months responsible for more than 50 deaths.

Luca Mercalli, the president of the Italian Meteorological Society, said there was “no doubt” the heatwaves were linked to global warming.

“It is much easier to connect a heatwave to global warming than, say, flooding,” he added. “Floods have a component linked to climate change but we don’t know to what extent, and so it is more delicate to say a flood is caused by [climate change]. Instead, with the heat there is no doubt – it is the most direct phenomenon that we can perceive.”

The ESA said: “Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heatwave with air temperatures expected to climb to 48C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.”

Morocco is among the north African countries slated for above-average temperatures, with highs of 47C in some provinces recorded this weekend – more typical of August than July – sparking concerns over water shortages, the meteorological service said.

On the Canary island of La Palma, more than 4,000 people were evacuated from properties after a forest fire swept through the north-west of the island.

The regional government said on Sunday it had put neighbouring islands including Tenerife and Gran Canaria on alert for risk of forest fires, with 4,500 hectares of land and a dozen homes already destroyed in La Palma.

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“The fire advanced very quickly,” said Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands regional government. He blamed “the wind, the climate conditions as well as the heatwave that we are living through” for the swift spread of the blaze.

In Greece, scorching heat forced the Acropolis to close temporarily between 11.30am and 5.30pm to protect tourists from dangerous temperatures, risk of dehydration and sunstroke.

Unrelenting temperatures are also being felt in the US, where sweltering conditions over the weekend put more than one-third of Americans under extreme heat alerts. The US National Weather Service (NWS) reported that a heatwave stretching from California to Texas was expected to peak during an “extremely hot and dangerous weekend”.

Death Valley national park – often among the hottest places on Earth – was expected to equal or surpass its heat record of 54.4C. Las Vegas could experience three consecutive days with a high of 46C, which has happened just once before, the NWS reported. Phoenix, which has endured a two-week stretch of temperatures above 43C with little relief in the evening hours, was expecting its hottest weekend of the year.

Southern California is fighting numerous wildfires, including one in Riverside County that has burned more than 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) and prompted evacuation orders. Farther north, the Canadian government said wildfires had burned a record-breaking 10m hectares this year, with more damage expected.

Japan issued heatstroke alerts to tens of millions of people in 20 of its 47 prefectures as near-record high temperatures scorched large areas and torrential rain pummelled other regions.

“Every time we’re visiting somewhere there seems to be a heatwave or like a rare weather disaster,” said Anthony Fernandez, a Texan tourist, in Tokyo. “It’s kind of becoming like the new normal … climate change is a big concern.”

The national broadcaster NHK said the heat was life-threatening, with the capital and other places recording nearly 40C. Japan’s highest temperature ever – 41.1C recorded in Kumagaya city, Saitama, in 2018 – could be beaten, according to the meteorological agency.

Some places experienced their highest temperatures in more than four decades on Saturday, including Hirono in Fukushima prefecture, with 37.3C.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said June 2023 was just over 0.5C above the 1991-2020 June average, with unprecedented sea temperatures and record-low Antarctic sea ice.

AFP and Reuters contributed to this report