Europe is burning as heat moves east while US and China temperatures soar
Five separate high-pressure weather systems across the northern hemisphere, which are linked by atmospheric waves, have led to unprecedented temperatures on multiple continents. The UK smashed its all-time heat mark on Tuesday, as did several cities in the Texas and Oklahoma, including Wichita Falls, which reached a broiling 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.
As Europe’s heat wave moves eastwards, wildfires have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, blanketing parts of Italy, Greece and France in smoke. Germany recorded its hottest day of the year as temperatures reached 104.5 F (40.3C) at a measuring station in Bad Mergentheim-Neunkirchen, in the center of the country, while Hungary and Italy have been hit with high temperatures of around 100 F (nearly 38C) in places.
The European Forest Fire Information System put 19 European countries on “extreme danger” alerts for wildfires on Wednesday, across an expanse stretching from Portugal and Spain in the southwest to Albania and Turkey in the southeast.
There was some respite in the UK, where temperatures dipped from an all-time high of 40.3 C (104.5 F) on Tuesday back into the 20s. But some residential areas around London were left in ruins after fires broke out across parts of the capital, stretching the fire service to its limits.
“Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War,” London’s mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday, as residents of the capital watched their homes destroyed in heat-triggered blazes they never thought possible.
A resident of Wennington, a London suburb affected by Tuesday’s fires, told CNN that the gardens on his street were “like a tinder box” in the days leading up to the fire. Stock lost his home, eight chickens and two beehives when the fire broke out.
“I didn’t sleep last night. I was in the hotel room thinking how bad it could have gone. I just thank god that everyone got out alive,” he said. “We’ve lost everything. But when we get back, we can clear the site, put some fences up, get a couple of mobile homes and we’ll start again.”
London had no available fire engines at one point in the afternoon amid unprecedented demand, a senior fireman with the London Fire Brigade’s special rescue team told CNN.
And in China, millions of densely-populated cities are responding to extreme heat. According to the China Meteorological Administration, at least 31 Chinese cities issued the second-highest orange alert warning, with temperatures expected to go up to 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 24 hours.
Europe burns in record heat
Greece: On the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens, firefighters have been tackling vast blazes that are being whipped up by wind. At least 600 people have been evacuated, including from a children’s hospital, authorities said. One person has died and 30 have been transferred to hospitals in the capital’s Attica region, the Greek Fire…
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