Comment Britain braced for its hottest day on record on Monday as French authorities warned of a “heatwave apocalypse” and emergency services across Europe grappled with wildfires spreading and the death toll rising. British authorities declared a state of emergency and for the first time issued a “red” warning for extreme heat across large parts of England, while France’s weather service put part of the Atlantic coast on its highest possible alert level. Forecasters predicted several heat records could be broken on Monday, with Britain expecting temperatures of up to 106 degrees (41 Celsius) — well above the current record of 101.7 degrees (38.7 Celsius), set in 2019. Temperatures in France were expected to reach 104 degrees (40 Celsius) and the heat was expected to remain until at least Tuesday. National emergency in Britain as deadly heat wave sweeps Europe Nikos Christidis, a climate performance researcher at the UK Met Office, said it reflected scientists’ expectations that climate change is making extreme heat events more frequent. “The chances of seeing 40°C days in the UK could be up to 10 times more likely in the current climate than in a natural climate unaffected by human influence,” he said in a statement. Across Europe, the human toll of the continent’s latest heatwave became increasingly visible on Monday. Thousands more people were expected to be evacuated amid fast-spreading fires in Spain, France and Portugal. Authorities have warned that the heat is likely to degrade air quality in major urban population centers and there are fears of hundreds of deaths from the high temperatures. Much of northern Italy, facing one of the worst droughts in decades, remained under a state of emergency. In many parts of France and Spain, fire services and hospitals were increasingly strained. France’s interior ministry said it would deploy hundreds of extra firefighters to the worst-hit areas, including popular beaches and holiday spots on the country’s west coast. In Spain, authorities said in many places, available firefighting planes were already operating at capacity. “Total solidarity with the firefighters and victims of the disasters,” wrote French Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne. Her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, paid tribute on Sunday to a dead emergency service worker. Hospital unions in France and other countries have warned that the heat is putting extra strain on services already facing a fresh surge in coronavirus-related hospitalizations in recent weeks. Models from Spain’s public Carlos III Institute estimate that more than 350 people died as a result of the heat in the country last week — well above the weekly average of about 60 deaths, but broadly comparable to the number of similar heatwaves the past years. More than 800 heat-related deaths were reported by the institute in June, when similar scorching temperatures hit the country and other parts of Europe, with temperatures reaching between 104 and 110 degrees (40 to 43 Celsius). The UK’s Health Service has issued a heat alert at the highest level of four, warning that illness and death could occur “among the fit and able”. Public health officials predicted that thousands of excess deaths could result, even as some skeptics saw it as hype. Conservative MP John Hayes told the Telegraph newspaper, “it’s not a brave new world, it’s a cowardly new world where we live in a country where we fear the heat”. But Britain is not designed for extreme heat. Very few houses have air conditioning and instead houses have traditionally been built to retain heat. Maintenance crews were spreading sand on the highways to keep the roads from melting. Penny Endersby, head of Britain’s weather service, the Met Office, called the predicted temperatures “absolutely unprecedented”. He acknowledged that many Britons were usually enjoying a sunny warmth. “It’s not that kind of weather,” said Endersby. “Our way of life and our infrastructure are not adapted to what is coming.” In London, workers wrapped the historic Hammersmith Bridge over the River Thames with silver insulating foil to protect the cast iron spans from cracking in the heat. Transit officials advised passengers to stay away and ordered trains to slow as maintenance crews were on the lookout for steel tracks buckling and buckling in the heat. A director of Network Rail, Jake Kelly, told BBC radio on Monday morning that the system was under “extreme stress”. “Our railway is made up of many components, many of them metal, which expand in the heat.” Kelly said. London Mayor Sadiq Khan warned riders to avoid all public transport, including the Tube, “unless absolutely necessary”. The subway becomes a sauna on hot days. The system, parts of which date back to the Victorian Era, has never seen temperatures like those predicted. In France, national rail operator SNCF similarly urged travelers to carry water bottles and be prepared for delays. The latest heat wave has reignited a debate about how to prepare citizens for the effects of climate change. The historic June heatwave breaks records in Europe While environmental concerns about the use of air conditioning remain widespread in Europe, it is increasingly seen as a key tool to protect the most vulnerable groups. After a heat wave killed an estimated 15,000 people in France in 2003, French nursing homes developed emergency plans. Many of them are now equipped with air-conditioned rooms, additional ventilation or sprinklers that cool the facades of the buildings. In Paris, city authorities are encouraging residents and tourists to use a dedicated website to find more than 900 “islands of coolness”, which include city parks, cemeteries, swimming pools and museums. The website also points out special “cooling routes” – for example, avenues lined with green trees – that connect these spaces. Other French cities rely on fogging devices. Studies suggest that such measures have reduced heat-related mortality since 2003. But as climate change progresses, increasingly brutal heat domes accumulating in urban areas could create risks that may be difficult to address with conventional solutions. Many of the elderly who died in the recent heat waves in France were at home and not in nursing facilities. 49 million people face famine as war in Ukraine, climate disasters intensify In rural areas, heat waves are expected to have an increasingly severe impact on agricultural production. This year, French farmers faced a mix of frost, a record warm May accompanied by spring drought, severe hail that brought heavy rain this year, followed by more drought this summer. “What we’re seeing now is just the beginning of the possible effects” of climate change, said Christian Huyghe, scientific director at France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research. Booth reported from London.
