(Toulouse) The heat wave of unprecedented precocity which has been hitting southern Europe for several days should further amplify throughout France on Saturday, while in Spain, firefighters are still fighting against several fires.
Updated yesterday at 10:03 p.m.
Almost all of French territory should be affected on Saturday, and 14 departments in the south-west have been placed on red alert with temperatures which could locally reach 42 ° C, according to Météo-France.
Records for the month of June were already broken on Friday in at least 11 municipalities, with in particular 40.4 ° C in Carcassonne (south).
The multiplication of heat waves in Europe is a direct consequence of global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions increase the strength, duration and rate of repetition of heat waves, scientists say.
Many festive, sporting and cultural events have been canceled in the French departments classified red, where schoolchildren and high school students were able to stay at home on Friday.
In Haute-Saône (east), ten students aged 10 and 11 were victims of sunstroke on a multi-sports ground near their school in Pin, where the temperature reached 35 °.
55°C in greenhouses
“We are in a very early heat wave episode, a strong episode which lasts a little longer than expected”, declared the French Minister of Health Brigitte Bourguignon, during a trip to a retirement home in the south-west, adding that “the hospital is obviously saturated, but meets the demand”.
The public authorities have been particularly vigilant for the past twenty years, learning the lessons of the historic heat wave of 2003 which killed more than 15,000 people in France, especially among the elderly.
Homeless people also suffer from the dangers of dehydration. In Toulouse (south-west), the Red Cross is organizing marauding events to distribute fresh water to them. “There are more deaths of people in the street in summer than in winter”, underlined a volunteer, Hugues Juglair, 67 years old.
Farmers have to adapt. “I attack at daybreak until 11:30 a.m., and then I can work in the evening, before nightfall,” says Daniel Toffaloni, 64, a farmer near Elne (south-west). In his tomato greenhouses, the temperature can reach 55 °.
In several departments in the center of the country, the fire risk is considered “very severe”, with an increase in crop fires in the fields.
Evacuations in Spain
In Spain, firefighters continued Friday to fight several fires across the country, hit by an exceptional heat wave for almost a week.
More than 3,000 people were thus evacuated from the Puy du Fou Spain amusement park, in the center of the country, due to a violent fire near the site.
The most devastating fire burned nearly 9,000 hectares in the Sierra de la Culebra (northwest), according to regional authorities in Castile and Leon.
More than 200 residents of this mountainous area near the border with Portugal had to be evacuated as the flames spread.
In the northeast of the country, hundreds of firefighters were fighting several other fires in Catalonia on “the most complicated day of this episode in terms of weather”, according to them.
A fire that broke out near Baldomar, in the province of Lérida, destroyed about 1,000 hectares of forest, according to the authorities. In the neighboring region of Aragon, at least 1,200 hectares have been burned in the municipality of Nonaspe, the prefecture said.
Drought in Italy
In northern Italy, Lombardy is preparing to declare a state of emergency in the face of a record drought threatening crops and water is already rationed in several towns in the Po Plain. This region, which is home to d important crops, is facing its worst drought in 70 years.
The United Nations (UN) called on Friday to “act now” against drought and desertification in order to avoid “human disasters”.
“It’s time to act: every action counts,” said the executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Ibrahim Thiaw, during a conference in Madrid on the occasion of the World Drought Day.