A heat “exceptional”. Hérault, Gard and Bouches-du-Rhône were placed on heatwave orange vigilance on Tuesday July 18 by Météo-France. From midnight, they will join the Alpes-Maritimes, Haute-Corse, Corse-du-Sud, Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Vaucluse and Pyrénées-Orientales, which remain affected by the heat wave alert. Météo-France also specifies that the temperatures will remain high at night in the departments concerned by the vigilance. The heat dome should shift to the east on Wednesday and only a few departments in the Southeast should remain affected by high heat. Follow our live.
40.4°C recorded in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Météo-France recorded a record temperature on Tuesday at its Serralongue station, 700 meters above sea level. The previous record dated back to August 22, 2012 and stood at 37°C. This 40°C bar was crossed in the Var and in Corsica on Tuesday afternoon.
French reinforcements in Greece. Two Canadairs, a reconnaissance plane and 18 firefighters are on their way to support Athens, which is still fighting against “very large fires”, said Gérald Darmanin. The day is coming “difficult” for Greek firefighters.
Stronger global warming in Europe. Climate change, which makes these heat wave episodes more regular and intense, is twice as fast as the global average in Europe, experts note. And the Mediterranean countries suffer particularly. Since 2000, heat waves have been five times more frequent in France than before 1989 and they will be twice as numerous within 30 years.
“These phenomena will continue to intensify” according to the UN. The world must prepare for more intense heat waves, alert, Tuesday, July 18, John Nairn, expert with the World Meteorological Organization, during a press briefing in Geneva (Switzerland). In the United States, in Italy… The northern hemisphere is currently approaching a peak in heat waves, with temperatures above seasonal norms. In Spain, several regions have been placed on red alert due to the “extreme danger” induced by the heat wave.