A record heatwave could cause “danger to life” in the UK, forecasters warned, as scorching temperatures fueled bushfires and prompted weather warnings in several European countries.
On Saturday, the British government held a meeting of its emergency committee, known as Cobra, after the country’s national weather service issued its first “red warning” for extreme heat on Monday and Tuesday.
This means “a risk to life is very likely, with substantial disruption to travel, power supplies and possibly widespread damage to property and infrastructure,” said the Met Office, known as at the Met Office on their website.
It came after the UK’s Health Safety Agency raised its health heat warning from level three to level four, which constitutes a national emergency.
Temperatures in southern England were forecast to reach 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the Met Office said on Friday. They could also surpass the UK’s highest temperature of 101.7 degrees, recorded in July 2019.
As a result, officials in a country where air conditioning in homes is rare have urged people not to take public transport and some schools have said they would hold classes remotely.
Across the UK, Met Office data showed cities such as London and Manchester would reach temperatures predicted in long-term climate projections for 2040. Highs of almost 104 degrees are predicted.
Scorching temperatures are also expected in parts of France and Spain, with a high of 107.6 degrees expected on Monday.
A man uses a drink to cool his face on Wednesday in Paris.Bertrand Guay / AFP – Getty Images
In the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, 12,200 people have been forced to evacuate their homes due to wildfires, the local authority of the Gironde department said in a statement on Saturday.
Nearly 1,200 firefighters and four specialist aircraft were battling to contain two fires that have burned 25,000 hectares of land, including forests south of the Atlantic resort town of Arcachon, which have been burning since Tuesday, the statement added.
Although one of the fires had been partially contained, warmer temperatures and winds over the weekend could complicate firefighting efforts, the department said in a statement.
“We are living through an exceptionally tough (summer) season,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday during a visit to the government’s crisis management center at the interior ministry in Paris.
The number of French forests burned in fires this year is already triple that destroyed in 2020, he said.
Further south in Portugal, a national high of 117 degrees was recorded in the northern town of Pinhao on Wednesday, as the hot, dry air mass from Africa blew over the western tip of the Iberian Peninsula.
On Saturday, more than 3,000 firefighters continued to battle several fires as citizens desperately tried to save their homes.
A water bomber pilot died Friday after his plane crashed while fighting a wildfire in the municipality of Torre de Moncorvo, in the north of Portugal, near the Spanish border.
Portugal’s Civil Protection Agency said just under 25,000 acres of land had burned this week alone.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Spain, temperatures topped 104 degrees for several days as firefighters battled to control a fire sparked by lightning on Monday in the west-central Las Hurdes area that consumed about 13,600 hectares of land.
Around 400 people from eight villages were evacuated on Thursday as the flames approached their homes and spread into nearby Monfrague National Park. In the Spanish town of Seville, some unions called for workers to be sent home.
Firefighters in Croatia and Hungary also battled the flames throughout the week, fueled by high temperatures and lightning.
Firefighters discovered a body Thursday morning among the ruins of a burned-out farmhouse, Hungary’s disaster management authority said in a statement Thursday.
Several towns were also evacuated in Greece and Morocco as fires swept across the Mediterranean.
As a result, the European Union has urged member states to prepare for wildfires this summer as the continent faces another extreme climate change that scientists say has been caused by climate change .
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed.
