A record heat wave persists on Sunday in the world, from Europe to China via the United States, forcing the authorities to take drastic measures to deal with these heat waves and new fires, illustrations of global warming .
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Italy, from north to south, is experiencing a heat wave with historic temperature records expected in the coming days.
On Sunday, 16 cities are on red alert across the country, with temperatures expected to reach 36/37°C from Rome to Bologna, before a dreaded peak at the start of next week.
“It’s the furnace. You can’t stay too long in the same place,” Veronika Niederlovi, 16, a Czech tourist who came to visit Rome, told AFP on Saturday morning.
According to the daily Il Messaggero, two amateur footballers aged 48 and 51 died Friday evening, after illness probably due to the heat, during matches in the Naples region (south).
The Italian Meteorological Center says it fears “the most intense heat wave of the summer, but also one of the most intense of all time”.
The north of the peninsula should not be spared with 38°C expected Tuesday in Milan.
In Germany, the highest temperatures on Saturday were measured in the Bavarian town of Möhrendorf-Kleinseebach (37.9 degrees). In addition, 35°C were recorded in Berlin and 34°C in Munich.
In France, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, was severely criticized on Saturday, in particular by the paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, for having assured that the temperatures were “fairly normal for a summer”.
Other influential personalities reacted, such as agroclimatology specialist Serge Zaka. “When will our politicians understand and take on the challenges of climate change?” He lamented on Twitter.
The month of June was the second hottest ever recorded in France, where several departments have been placed on heat wave orange vigilance since Tuesday.
Greece is also suffering from a heat wave, which forced the authorities to close the Acropolis of Athens during the hottest hours of the day on Sunday for the third consecutive day, when temperatures could reach 41°C in the country.
AFP
Red Cross teams, deployed at the foot of the Acropolis to help tourists, have intervened “dozens of times” to rescue visitors who have suffered in particular from discomfort or shortness of breath in recent days.
In Spain, a new wave of heat is expected between Monday and Wednesday after a brief respite this weekend at the end of a week where temperatures exceeded 40°C in Andalusia (south) as well as in the Canary Islands. .
“This new wave will be brief, but intense: we should exceed 42°”, wrote the Meteorological Agency (Aemet) on Twitter.
AFP
North Africa is also affected. In Morocco, a new heat wave is announced until Tuesday, with temperatures varying between 37 and 47°C in several provinces, according to the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM).
In Asia, several provinces in southern and southeast China will experience high temperatures over the weekend, reaching 35 to 40 C, according to the Central Meteorological Observatory. In parts of the northwest, some cities could even exceed 40°C.
In Japan, the authorities have called on the population to be cautious as temperatures are expected to reach 39°C on Sunday and Monday in the east of the country, according to the local forecaster.
On the other side of the globe, the southern United States is roasting in the heat: several tens of millions of Americans, from California to Texas, suffered dangerously high temperatures which are expected to peak over the weekend .
Getty Images via AFP
In Phoenix, a metropolis of Arizona in the southwestern United States, nearly 44°C were recorded on Saturday, the 16th consecutive day of highs above 43°C, and meteorologists expect that the mercury reaches 46°C.
“When I drink a glass of water, I feel dizzy, I want to vomit because of the heat,” says Juan, a 28-year-old worker who gave only his first name and works on a building site. of Houston, Texas, outside in the blistering heat.
In California, in Death Valley – one of the hottest places on the globe – new temperature peaks are expected on Sunday, possibly up to 54°C, after 48°C were recorded there on Saturday noon.
In the south of the state, American firefighters have been fighting since Friday against several very violent fires which have ravaged more than 1,214 hectares and led to the evacuation of the population.
Smoke from fires in Canada, where more than 500 fires are out of control, had already led to several episodes of heavy air pollution over the northeastern United States in June.
In Jordan, in the grip of a heat wave which exceeded 40°C in certain regions, the relief workers are fighting fires in the forests of Ajloun (north).
Globally, the month of June was the hottest ever measured, according to European agencies Copernicus and American NASA and NOAA.
Then, the first full week of July was in turn the hottest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing the strength, duration and rate of repetition of heat waves, experts say.
Heat is one of the deadliest weather events, the WMO said. Last summer in Europe alone, high temperatures caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.