Second heat wave in as many weeks grips Mediterranean while fires hit Spain, Switzerland and Greece
CTV
Officials warned residents and tourists packing Mediterranean destinations on Tuesday to stay indoors as a second heat wave in as many weeks hit the region and Greece, Spain and Switzerland battled wildfires.
Officials warned residents and tourists packing Mediterranean destinations on Tuesday to stay indoors as a second heat wave in as many weeks hit the region and Greece, Spain and Switzerland battled wildfires.
In Italy, Red Cross teams checked on the elderly by phone while in Portugal they took to social media to warn people not to leave pets or children in parked cars. In Greece, volunteers handed out drinking water, while in Spain they reminded people to protect themselves from breathing in smoke from fires.
Several countries in southern Europe are sweating through a new heat wave, amplified by climate change, that is expected to persist for days. The U.N. weather agency said that temperatures in Europe could break even the 48.8-degree Celsius (119.8-degree Fahrenheit) record set in Sicily two years ago, as concerns grew the heat would provoke a spike in deaths.
"Heat waves are really an invisible killer," Panu Saaristo, emergency health unit team leader for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told a briefing in Geneva. "We are experiencing hotter and hotter temperatures for longer stretches of time every single summer here in Europe."
Heat records are being shattered all over the world, and scientists say there is a good chance that 2023 will go down as the hottest year on record, with measurements going back to the middle of the 19th century.
June saw the warmest global average temperature, according to Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization predicted that a number of heat records were set to fall this summer. The WMO said unprecedented sea surface temperatures and low Arctic sea-ice levels were largely to blame.
Human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is making the world hotter and is being amplified by the naturally occurring El Nino weather phenomenon. But the current El Nino only started a few months ago and is still weak to moderate and isn't expected to peak until winter.
