(Strasbourg) The extreme and early heat wave that has been hitting southern and central Europe for the past few days, causing numerous forest fires, particularly near Berlin, is shifting towards eastern France and the Swiss.
Posted at 7:58
Updated at 10:45 a.m.
In northern Germany, the worst of the heat wave has passed, but the rest of the country “continues to sweat”, according to the public meteorological body DWD.
The maximum temperatures on Saturday were between “30 and 37 ° C”, where a high was observed for the stations of Waghäusel-Kirrlach (west), with 37.1 ° C. On Sunday, peaks between “30 and 38 ° C” are expected.
As a result of the hot weather, the fire that broke out on Friday in Brandenburg, near Berlin, has spread further, and now covers nearly 100 hectares.
“Three districts” of the city of Treuenbrietzen, in the Brandenburg region, were evacuated on Sunday, “around 700 people”, a spokesman for the district of Potsdam-Mittelmark told AFP.
According to local media, the fire ravaged a hundred hectares in this wooded and rural region, around the municipality of Treuenbrietzen, where nearly 8,000 inhabitants live.
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.
39°C expected in Alsace
The French meteorological service lifted its red alert on Sunday morning on the 11 departments affected in the south-west, but 52 aures remain placed on orange vigilance in the center and east of the country.
In Paris, the sweltering temperatures dropped sharply under the storm, with 16°C recorded at daybreak. But temperatures of 34 to 38 ° C are still expected on Sunday in the center and east of the country, with peaks of up to 39 ° C in Alsace, a region bordering Germany.
As a result of this heat wave combined with an already well-established drought, 600 hectares of vegetation went up in smoke in the Var (south), set ablaze by artillery fire on a military training camp.
Punctual thunderstorms were expected on the Atlantic coast, the beginnings of a deterioration expected for Sunday evening and which will allow the heat wave to “gradually decrease to no longer concern only the eastern flank of the country”, according to Météo-France.
Still hot in Switzerland on Monday and Tuesday
In neighboring Switzerland, the heat wave is also continuing “with an expected peak today. After the first monthly heat records recorded on Saturday, temperatures will rise a few more degrees today,” MeteoSwiss said.
Around 12:00 GMT, temperatures were already between 32 and 34°C, 1 to 4°C higher than Saturday at the same time. The 35°C mark has already been reached in Geneva.
Neuchâtel (west) notably broke its record with 34.7°C against a previous record of 34.1°C in 2019.
After this heat peak today, temperatures will drop slightly but will remain at a scorching level on Monday and Tuesday.
25,000 hectares burned in Spain
In Spain, temperatures were already starting to drop in most of the country, with mercury expected to reach only 29°C in Madrid on Sunday and 25°C in the province of Zamora (northwest).
But the country was still grappling with forest fires, the largest of which has already destroyed more than 25,000 hectares in the Sierra de la Culebra, a mountain range in the Castile and Leon region, near the border with the Portugal, according to regional authorities.
The fire had forced the authorities to evacuate 14 villages, bringing together several hundred inhabitants. The latter were allowed to return home on Sunday morning, due to the improvement in the situation, local officials said.
Spanish firefighters also continued to fight several fires in Catalonia and Navarre.
The current wave arrived from the Maghreb via the Iberian Peninsula.