After Spain and Portugal already in the midst of a heat wave, the United Kingdom and France - where a thousand hectares of forest have gone up in smoke - are in turn preparing on Wednesday July 13 to suffer the full brunt of a second wave of heat in just one month.

The proliferation of these phenomena is a direct consequence of climate change according to scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in intensity, duration and frequency.

The heat wave that has settled over Western Europe "mainly affects Spain and Portugal but is expected to intensify and spread", said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization, in Geneva. .  

She warned of the critical situation of "very, very dry soils" and the impact of temperatures on the glaciers of the Alps: "It's a very bad season for glaciers", she insisted, a little more than a week after the collapse in Italy of a huge block of the Marmolada glacier, weakened by global warming, which killed eleven people.

Two fires in France

In France, two fires - favored by the heatwave episode - burned 1,000 hectares of forest on Tuesday, in the Bordeaux region (southwest).

The most important destroyed 800 hectares of pines near Landiras, about forty kilometers from Bordeaux, leading to the evacuation of 150 people, according to the prefecture.

And near the tourist site of the Dune du Pilat, the highest in Europe, located on the Bassin d'Arcachon, another fire consumed some 180 hectares of old pines, according to firefighters.

The episode of high heat should last in France at least until the beginning of next week.

From Wednesday, the mercury will reach 31 to 36 degrees, locally up to 37/38 degrees in the Southwest.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called on the government to mobilize in the face of the "very rapid impact" of the heat "on the state of health of the populations, in particular of the most vulnerable people".

Save every drop

The high temperatures are then expected to spread to other parts of western or central Europe.

In the United Kingdom, the weather agency (Met Office) issued an orange alert before a wave of "extreme heat" from Sunday with temperatures that could exceed 35 degrees.

The British have also been called by their water companies to save every drop, in particular by heating only the quantity strictly necessary for their cup of tea.

With mercury over 40°C, Spain and Portugal continue to suffocate.

Fanned by these exceptional temperatures and by violent winds, the forest fires which had hit central Portugal this weekend resumed with force on Tuesday, causing the evacuation of several villages and mobilizing more than a thousand firefighters.

The risk of fire had already prompted the authorities to close the very touristy Sintra natural park, west of Lisbon, while the temperature rose to 43.1 degrees in the center of the country.

Over 40°C in Spain

In Spain, temperatures again crossed the 40°C mark in much of the western half of the country, especially in areas that are usually temperate.

Thus 43.3°C were recorded in Cordoba (south) then 43.5°C in Ribadavia (Galicia, north-west), according to the weather agency (Aemet).

In Mérida (southeast), it was logically even hotter: 43.9°C.

The peak of this scorching wave is expected to last until Thursday.

Favored by these exceptional temperatures, several fires were raging in the country, one of which had already burned 2,500 hectares of vegetation in Extremadura (west).

According to the government, between January 1 and July 3, 70,354 hectares of forest went up in smoke in Spain, almost double (+ 87%) the average of the last ten years.

With AFP

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