France waits Thursday for the peak of heat of the second epic heat wave of the summer. An episode that, compared to the heat wave that hit the country in late June, particularly affects the north of France, where 20 departments are vigilant red. Our neighbors are no exception either: since Wednesday, in Germany and the Benelux countries, accustomed to cooler temperatures, mercury has crossed the thresholds never reached.
Amsterdam bridges closely watched
Wednesday, in the streets of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, was suffocating under 39.2 degrees, almost a degree higher than the old record that dates back to 1944. In Amsterdam, the heat is so unusual that employees Municipalities particularly monitor the bridges. Relentlessly they water the metal parts to prevent them to expand too much under the effect of heat and try to cool them. For the same purpose, the local television channel RTV Oost offers viewers a "tele-freshness", which broadcasts live images of snowy landscapes.
Several hundred pigs were less fortunate: they died on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday on a farm in Middelharnis, in the west of the Netherlands, because of the heat and a breakdown of ventilation, according to the local media.
In some places, the salt spreaders, usually used in winter, have been removed because the salt has the effect of cooling the asphalt and thus preventing the tar from melting.
From heat record to heat record
In Belgium too we have never been so hot, with 38.9 degrees measured Wednesday at Kleine Brogel in the province of Limburg. The red hot dog code was triggered for the first time in the kingdom's history. A 39.9 ° C temperature was measured Wednesday at the Kleine-Brogel military base in the northeast, said David Dehenauw, chief forecaster at the Royal Meteorological Institute (MRI). This is "the highest temperature since observations began in 1833," he said.
In Germany it was even hotter, with a record also beaten Wednesday: 40.5 degrees recorded in Geilenkirchen, about thirty kilometers north of Aachen. This record could again fall on Thursday, with a mercury likely to reach 41 degrees.
Three people missing after bathing in the Thames
The United Kingdom will also "probably beat the heat record of July, which is 36.7 ° C, and there is even a possibility to beat the absolute record of 38.5 ° C," says the weather British (Met Office). In London, the police are looking for three missing people after bathing in the Thames. Luxembourg has announced that it is also triggering the red alert. Italy is also affected and the authorities raised the alert at level 3 ("red bulletin") in five cities for Wednesday, Bolzano, Brescia, Florence, Perugia and Turin.
Lastly, half of Switzerland is on a hot orange alert and the national weather service is planning an "important thaw in the high mountains" where the 0 ° C isotherm will be Wednesday at an unusually high altitude of 4,800 meters, which is higher than the point culminating country.