Text by:
Pauline ROUQUETTE
4 min
The punishing heatwave that has triggered deadly wildfires across southwest Europe is poised to break temperature records in France and the United Kingdom early this week, confirming scientists’ warnings that Western Europe has become a heatwave “hot spot”.
France was bracing on Monday for the peak of the heatwave that is currently sweeping across Western Europe, causing devastating forest fires in the southwestern Gironde region and across the Iberian Peninsula.
Britain, meanwhile, was on course for its hottest day on record with temperatures forecast to hit 40°C (over 110 Fahrenheit) for the first time and the weather service warning of a “risk to life”.
Meteorologists have said that the latest bout of extreme heat could match or even surpass the record heatwave that was blamed for 70,000 deaths – including 15,000 in France alone – in the blistering summer of 2003.
It comes on the heels of an earlier, unseasonal heatwave that broiled parts of southern Europe in mid-June, aggravating Italy’s worst drought in 70 years.
