Southern Europe on fire
As Brits make their familiar complaints about the rainy, windy summer weather, extreme heat is gripping large swathes of Southern Europe and North America and breaking all sorts of local and national records.
The Italian island of Sardinia is expected to see a high of 46C today while temperatures in Southern Spain reached 44C yesterday. Meteorologists predict that Europe’s current record of 48.8C – set in Sicily two years ago – may be broken later this week when the Med’s heatwave is forecast to reach its peak. After that, scorching temperatures are expected to continue into August.
The EU is mobilising aircraft designed for aerial firefighting to send to Greece to help battle the wildfires raging near Athens while Swiss army helicopters are struggling to tame Switzerland’s forest fires. The country’s firefighters warn that it could take weeks to put the blaze out completely thanks to a “toxic cocktail” of extreme dryness and high winds.
Across the Atlantic, California’s Death Valley recorded a temperature of 49C at midnight last night, after reaching 52C over the weekend. Records are also being set for just how long the scorching temperatures are lasting: in Phoenix, Arizona, the temperature rose above 43C yesterday for the eighteenth consecutive day.
Meanwhile, China recorded its hottest temperature ever on Sunday: 52.2C in Xinjiang.
While we tend not to view heatwaves as deadly weather events in the same way we do with other natural hazards such as earthquakes, it’s worth remembering that an estimated 61,000 people died in the heatwave across Europe last year.
Britain isn’t likely to be affected by this particular bout of sweltering weather thanks to a fast-moving wind bringing cooler Arctic air to much of northern Europe. That said, John Nairn, senior extreme heat advisor at the UN agency, warned today that “the world needs to prepare for more intense heatwaves.”
According to Nairn, the number of drawn-out and simultaneous heatwaves in the northern hemisphere has grown six-fold since the 1980s and “this trend shows no signs of decreasing.”
“We’re in for a bit of a ride,” he added.
This ride will mean adapting our behaviour.
In Germany, the Federal Association of Public Health Doctors has suggested importing the Spanish concept of an afternoon siesta during hot summer months. Meanwhile, scientists in Barcelona are proposing a makeover for the Catalan capital: repainting the city’s terracotta balconies white.
Others are speculating about the impact these drawn-out heatwaves will have on tourism trends.
Italy’s Environment Ministry warned earlier this year that that travellers may start to opt for cooler destinations for their future summer holidays. And indeed, the European Travel Commission (ETC) is already seeing a shift. It said today that many cooler destinations – including Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland – have seen a spike in interest from tourists.
Equally possible is that changing temperatures will redefine our notion of a “peak season.”
Another pattern the ETC has identified is a fall in the number of individuals choosing to take their holiday in August. A growing number of Europeans are instead opting for Autumn getaways. How very sensible. Although they could head to the UK in July where the heating is on.
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