Europe's heatwave reaches Poland, Greece as it moves eastwards, brings wildfires
By Renee Maltezou and Federico Maccioni
By Renee Maltezou and Federico Maccioni
© Reuters/LOUIZA VRADI Wildfires near Athens
ATHENS/MILAN (Reuters) - The vast heatwave covering swathes of Europe moved steadily eastwards on Thursday, forcing countries including Italy, Poland and Slovenia to issue their highest heatwave alerts as firefighters battled wildfires across the continent.
Since temperatures in southern Europe began to soar earlier this month, the heatwave has caused hundreds of deaths and sparked wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of hectares of land in countries including Spain, Portugal and France. Britain and France both saw record high temperatures on Tuesday.
ATHENS/MILAN (Reuters) - The vast heatwave covering swathes of Europe moved steadily eastwards on Thursday, forcing countries including Italy, Poland and Slovenia to issue their highest heatwave alerts as firefighters battled wildfires across the continent.
Since temperatures in southern Europe began to soar earlier this month, the heatwave has caused hundreds of deaths and sparked wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of hectares of land in countries including Spain, Portugal and France. Britain and France both saw record high temperatures on Tuesday.
© Reuters/COSTAS BALTAS Wildfires near Athens
The extreme heatwave is part of a global patternof rising temperatures, widely attributed by scientists andclimatologists to climate change caused by human activity. It is forecast to dump searing heat on much of China into late August.
Greece, which contained a huge wildfire that raged near Athens for two days and was fanned by high winds, urged Europe to do more to tackle climate change.
"The climate crisis is now evident across Europe, with particular intensity in the wider Mediterranean region. The cocktail of high temperatures, gusty winds and heavy drought inevitably leads to wildfires," government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said on Thursday.
"Europe must act in a coordinated and rapid manner to reverse the climate crisis," Oikonomou told reporters. "The solution cannot be given at a national level, because the problem is transnational and huge."
Greek fire fighters had tackled 390 forest fires in one week, about 50-70 blazes a day, he said. According to the meteorological station in Penteli outside Athens, where the fire broke out on Tuesday, winds reached 113 km per hour (70 mph) at one point.
Fuelled by climate change, wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity in many countries, spreading smoke that contains noxious gases, chemicals and particulate matter and that can be damaging to health.
MORE WILDFIRES
In Poland, the authorities issued heat warnings for many parts of the country, with temperatures as high as 36.7 Celsius (98 Fahrenheit) measured in the western town of Kornik. In the northern port city of Gdansk, many residents and tourists headed for local beaches to cool down.
A large wildfire fire broke out near the southern town of Brzesko, the Onet news website reported. Firefighters told Onet that more than 50 hectares (120 acres) of fields had already burned, and that the fire was moving towards a forest.
Temperatures in Poland are expected to ease on the weekend.
In Italy, blazes in Tuscany and Friuli Venezia Giulia continued to rage but did not appear to have spread, Italian news agency ANSA reported. New wildfires were spotted in the mountains near Bologna and bordering the A9 highway, north of Milan, it said.
Fourteen cities, including Rome and Milan, were placed on the country's highest heatwave alert on Thursday, with the number set to increase to 16 on Friday, the health ministry said.
ANSA also reported that a fire that began in northern Italy near Carso has spread across the border to Slovenia, damaging an area of over 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres).
On the Slovenian side, 400 people from three villages had to be evacuated because of the blaze, Slovenian news outlets said.
Wildfires continued to burn in Portugal and Spain.
Sitting in a large sports hall filled with cots and plastic chairs, Fernando Gimenez, 68, shed tears as he spoke about leaving his home in central Spain, west of Madrid.
Gimenez was one of thousands of residents evacuated from the village of El Hoyo de Pinares because of a wildfire.
"I don’t know what I will find. Burnt trees. Nothing. I can’t even think about it," Gimenez told Reuters. "I feel kind of emptiness inside," he added.
The Spanish Red Cross has organized temporary accommodation for him and hundreds of evacuees.
"We work a lot with them on psychological support, because leaving their home behind without knowing what is happening, it's hard," said a Red Cross team leader, Belen Lopez.
(Reporting Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Frances Kerry)f emptiness inside," he added.
The Spanish Red Cross has organized temporary accommodation for him and hundreds of evacuees.
"We work a lot with them on psychological support, because leaving their home behind without knowing what is happening, it's hard," said a Red Cross team leader, Belen Lopez.
(Reporting Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Frances Kerry)
The extreme heatwave is part of a global patternof rising temperatures, widely attributed by scientists andclimatologists to climate change caused by human activity. It is forecast to dump searing heat on much of China into late August.
Greece, which contained a huge wildfire that raged near Athens for two days and was fanned by high winds, urged Europe to do more to tackle climate change.
"The climate crisis is now evident across Europe, with particular intensity in the wider Mediterranean region. The cocktail of high temperatures, gusty winds and heavy drought inevitably leads to wildfires," government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said on Thursday.
"Europe must act in a coordinated and rapid manner to reverse the climate crisis," Oikonomou told reporters. "The solution cannot be given at a national level, because the problem is transnational and huge."
Greek fire fighters had tackled 390 forest fires in one week, about 50-70 blazes a day, he said. According to the meteorological station in Penteli outside Athens, where the fire broke out on Tuesday, winds reached 113 km per hour (70 mph) at one point.
Fuelled by climate change, wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity in many countries, spreading smoke that contains noxious gases, chemicals and particulate matter and that can be damaging to health.
MORE WILDFIRES
In Poland, the authorities issued heat warnings for many parts of the country, with temperatures as high as 36.7 Celsius (98 Fahrenheit) measured in the western town of Kornik. In the northern port city of Gdansk, many residents and tourists headed for local beaches to cool down.
A large wildfire fire broke out near the southern town of Brzesko, the Onet news website reported. Firefighters told Onet that more than 50 hectares (120 acres) of fields had already burned, and that the fire was moving towards a forest.
Temperatures in Poland are expected to ease on the weekend.
In Italy, blazes in Tuscany and Friuli Venezia Giulia continued to rage but did not appear to have spread, Italian news agency ANSA reported. New wildfires were spotted in the mountains near Bologna and bordering the A9 highway, north of Milan, it said.
Fourteen cities, including Rome and Milan, were placed on the country's highest heatwave alert on Thursday, with the number set to increase to 16 on Friday, the health ministry said.
ANSA also reported that a fire that began in northern Italy near Carso has spread across the border to Slovenia, damaging an area of over 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres).
On the Slovenian side, 400 people from three villages had to be evacuated because of the blaze, Slovenian news outlets said.
Wildfires continued to burn in Portugal and Spain.
Sitting in a large sports hall filled with cots and plastic chairs, Fernando Gimenez, 68, shed tears as he spoke about leaving his home in central Spain, west of Madrid.
Gimenez was one of thousands of residents evacuated from the village of El Hoyo de Pinares because of a wildfire.
"I don’t know what I will find. Burnt trees. Nothing. I can’t even think about it," Gimenez told Reuters. "I feel kind of emptiness inside," he added.
The Spanish Red Cross has organized temporary accommodation for him and hundreds of evacuees.
"We work a lot with them on psychological support, because leaving their home behind without knowing what is happening, it's hard," said a Red Cross team leader, Belen Lopez.
(Reporting Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Frances Kerry)f emptiness inside," he added.
The Spanish Red Cross has organized temporary accommodation for him and hundreds of evacuees.
"We work a lot with them on psychological support, because leaving their home behind without knowing what is happening, it's hard," said a Red Cross team leader, Belen Lopez.
(Reporting Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Climate alarm as Europe wildfires rage
Wed, 20 July 2022
Emergency services have battled wildfires across swathes of southern Europe amid mass evacuations, as warnings sounded in London after Britain's hottest day that the fight against climate change needed to be stepped up.
Hundreds fled in central Italy as gas tanks exploded in a forest fire near the Tuscan town of Lucca. Similar numbers fled in Greece as a blaze fuelled by strong winds raged in mountains north of Athens.
Greek authorities said later in the day that the blaze had been tamed.
A brutal heatwave with spikes well above 40C settled over southern Europe last week, part of a global pattern of rising temperatures, widely attributed by scientists and climatologists to human activity.
It is forecast to dump searing heat on much of China into late August. It is also expected to expose about 100 million Americans to temperatures above 38C on Wednesday and set records in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
While the record heat last week around parts of the Mediterranean has eased, mercury readings have begun heading up again in Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Armando Silva, Civil Protection commander in Portugal's northern region, said rising temperatures and strong winds would make it harder to fight the country's largest wildfire centred on the municipality of Murca.
It has burned 10,000-12,000 hectares since Sunday and about 800 firefighters and six water planes have been deployed to tackle it.
In Spain, where emergency crews were fighting fires in five regions, national weather service AEMET also forecast higher temperatures.
Wildfires burned in several areas of Italy, including one that threatened to leave part of the northeastern city of Trieste without power and water, and 14 metropolitan areas including Rome, Milan and Florence were due to be put on the country's highest heatwave alert on Thursday.
Forecasters there said temperatures were expected to hit 40C across the north and centre this week.
That mark was topped in Britain for the first time on Tuesday. At least 13 people died while swimming to cool off.
The chief of science and technology at Britain's Met Office, Stephen Belcher, said that unless emissions were reduced, the country might experience similar heatwaves every three years.
Treasury minister Simon Clarke said Tuesday's "remarkable, unprecedented" record served as "a reminder ... of the importance of tackling climate change".
British engineers raced on Wednesday to fix train tracks that buckled in the heat after firefighters worked through the night to damp down wildfires.
The shift in climate is leading to more wildfires and will force France and the European Union to take "structural decisions...in the years to come", President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.
In southern Europe, far larger wildfires continued to rage.
In Italy, emergency crews in Tuscany battled the Lucca wildfire, which forced about 500 people to leave as flames reached villages overnight and caused liquefied gas tanks to explode, the region's governor, Eugenio Giani, tweeted.
Another fire close to the border with Croatia and Slovenia forced state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri to close down its plant in the port city of Monfalcone.
In Greece, thick smoke darkened the sky over Mount Penteli, north of Athens, where close to 500 firefighters managed to stem the spread of a wildfire that forced the evacuation of nine settlements and a hospital.
In France, where firefighters in the southwestern Gironde region have been battling since July 12 to contain huge forest fires, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said more money needed to be invested to tackle such threats.
Wed, 20 July 2022
Emergency services have battled wildfires across swathes of southern Europe amid mass evacuations, as warnings sounded in London after Britain's hottest day that the fight against climate change needed to be stepped up.
Hundreds fled in central Italy as gas tanks exploded in a forest fire near the Tuscan town of Lucca. Similar numbers fled in Greece as a blaze fuelled by strong winds raged in mountains north of Athens.
Greek authorities said later in the day that the blaze had been tamed.
A brutal heatwave with spikes well above 40C settled over southern Europe last week, part of a global pattern of rising temperatures, widely attributed by scientists and climatologists to human activity.
It is forecast to dump searing heat on much of China into late August. It is also expected to expose about 100 million Americans to temperatures above 38C on Wednesday and set records in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
While the record heat last week around parts of the Mediterranean has eased, mercury readings have begun heading up again in Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Armando Silva, Civil Protection commander in Portugal's northern region, said rising temperatures and strong winds would make it harder to fight the country's largest wildfire centred on the municipality of Murca.
It has burned 10,000-12,000 hectares since Sunday and about 800 firefighters and six water planes have been deployed to tackle it.
In Spain, where emergency crews were fighting fires in five regions, national weather service AEMET also forecast higher temperatures.
Wildfires burned in several areas of Italy, including one that threatened to leave part of the northeastern city of Trieste without power and water, and 14 metropolitan areas including Rome, Milan and Florence were due to be put on the country's highest heatwave alert on Thursday.
Forecasters there said temperatures were expected to hit 40C across the north and centre this week.
That mark was topped in Britain for the first time on Tuesday. At least 13 people died while swimming to cool off.
The chief of science and technology at Britain's Met Office, Stephen Belcher, said that unless emissions were reduced, the country might experience similar heatwaves every three years.
Treasury minister Simon Clarke said Tuesday's "remarkable, unprecedented" record served as "a reminder ... of the importance of tackling climate change".
British engineers raced on Wednesday to fix train tracks that buckled in the heat after firefighters worked through the night to damp down wildfires.
The shift in climate is leading to more wildfires and will force France and the European Union to take "structural decisions...in the years to come", President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.
In southern Europe, far larger wildfires continued to rage.
In Italy, emergency crews in Tuscany battled the Lucca wildfire, which forced about 500 people to leave as flames reached villages overnight and caused liquefied gas tanks to explode, the region's governor, Eugenio Giani, tweeted.
Another fire close to the border with Croatia and Slovenia forced state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri to close down its plant in the port city of Monfalcone.
In Greece, thick smoke darkened the sky over Mount Penteli, north of Athens, where close to 500 firefighters managed to stem the spread of a wildfire that forced the evacuation of nine settlements and a hospital.
In France, where firefighters in the southwestern Gironde region have been battling since July 12 to contain huge forest fires, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said more money needed to be invested to tackle such threats.
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