Italy limited work outdoors, France shut schools and Turkey battled wildfires on Tuesday in a European heat wave that meteorologists said was “exceptional” for striking so early this yr.
Spain confirmed its hottest June on record, while temperatures passed 40 C (104°F) in a few of its cities on Tuesday. Likewise, heat scaled to succeed in 40 C within the Italian city of Trento, while northern European cities comparable to London were also sweltering.
Europe is heating up at twice the worldwide average speed and is the world’s fastest-warming continent, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has said.
“What is outstanding … but not unprecedented is the time of yr,” said World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis.
Europe was experiencing extreme heat episodes “which normally we might see afterward in the summertime,” she said.
Some countries issued health alerts and trade unions attributed the death of a construction employee near the Italian city of Bologna on Monday to the warmth.
Outdoor work was banned in some Italian regions in the course of the hottest hours of the day as Italy issued heat wave red alerts for 17 cities, including Milan and Rome.
Power outages, likely caused or aggravated by spiking electricity consumption from air conditioners, were reported in central Florence and within the northern city of Bergamo. In Sicily, a lady with a heart condition died while walking in town of Bagheria, news agencies reported.
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Within the Spanish city of Barcelona, authorities were looking into whether the death of a street sweeper on the weekend was heat-related.
The Red Cross arrange an air-conditioned “climate refuge” for residents in Malaga in southern Spain, said a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Turkey continued to battle the wildfires that forced the temporary evacuation of around 50,000 people on Monday in areas surrounding town of Izmir and within the nearby province of Manisa, in addition to Hatay within the southeast.
In France, nearly 1,900 schools were closed, up from around 200 on Monday. The warmth was set to peak in France on Tuesday at 40-41 C in some areas, weather forecaster Meteo France said.
Record temperatures bake countries
Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a reason for climate change, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing aspects. Last yr was the planet’s hottest on record.
“We keep hearing about climate change. I feel we’re definitely feeling it now,” said Omar Bah, a rental company employee said in London, where temperatures hit 32 C.
The Mediterranean Sea hit a record 30 C off Spain, six degrees above the seasonal average, Spanish weather forecaster AEMET said, as a high pressure system trapped hot air above Europe – a phenomenon often called a heat dome.
Nullis said higher temperatures within the Mediterranean Sea tend to strengthen extreme temperatures over land areas.
The typical temperature in Spain was 23.6 C last month, weather agency AEMET said. Copernicus said June probably ranks among the many five warmest on record, Copernicus said. England had its hottest June since no less than 1884, the Met Office national weather service said, citing provisional data.
A Paris-Milan rail service was disrupted due to a mudslide on the French side of the Alps, with full service not expected to be fully restored until mid-July, French rail operator SNCF said.
The highest floor of the Eiffel Tower was closed, disappointing scores of tourists.
“I attempted to get all organized before our departure and the result’s nonsense,” said Laia Pons, 42, a teacher from Barcelona who booked Eiffel tickets for her family three years ago.
When temperatures rise, the puddled iron used to construct the Eiffel Tower expands in size and tilts barely, with no impact on its structural integrity, in keeping with its website.
The scorching temperatures have raised the chance of field fires as farmers in France, the European Union’s biggest grain producer, start harvesting this yr’s crop, with many working through the night to avoid peak afternoon temperatures.
(Additional reporting by Emma Farge, Michaela Cabrera, Kate Abnett, Gus Trompiz, Rachel More, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Ezgi Erkoyun, William James; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Michele Kambas; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Timothy Heritage)