Global warming: surge of heat waves around the world

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: MATHIEU THOMASSET / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 16:11 p.m., July 15, 2023

The heat wave spreads Saturday in the world, from Europe to China via the United States, forcing the authorities to take drastic measures to deal with these heat waves and new fires, new illustrations of global warming. Italy, from north to south, is experiencing a heat wave, with all-time temperature records expected in the coming days. On Sunday, 16 cities will be on red alert throughout the country, with temperatures expected to reach 36/37 ° C from Rome to Bologna, before a feared peak early next week. "It's the furnace. You can't stay too long in one place, it's too hot," Veronika Niederlovi, 16, a Czech tourist who came to visit Rome, told AFP on Saturday morning.

According to the daily Il Messaggero, two amateur footballers aged 48 and 51 died on Friday night, after illnesses probably due to the heat, during matches in the region of Naples (south). The Italian Weather Centre says it fears "the most intense heat wave of the summer but also one of the most intense of all time". The north of the peninsula should not be spared with 38 ° C expected Tuesday in Milan. Like Italy, many countries in Europe are also facing a vast heat wave. In Germany, over a large part of the country, temperatures could climb up to 38 degrees, according to a statement from the weather service published Saturday. Violent thunderstorms are also expected in the West and South-West with a risk of gusts of up to 110 km / h.

Closed acropolis

Greece is also suffering from a heat wave that forced the authorities, for the second day in a row, to close the Acropolis of Athens at the hottest hours between 11:30 and 17:30 local (08:30 GMT and 14:30 GMT). If temperatures of 40°C to 41°C are expected in Athens, "the true temperature felt (...) by the body is considerably higher" at the top of the Acropolis, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said on Friday. Since Thursday, the Red Cross, deployed at the foot of the Acropolis to help tourists who could be victims of sunstroke or fainting, has distributed more than 50,000 bottles of water of 50 cl. The NGO's teams have also intervened "dozens of times" to rescue visitors who have suffered from malaise or shortness of breath in recent days.

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North Africa is also affected. In Morocco, a new heat wave is announced until Tuesday, with temperatures varying between 37 and 47 ° C in several provinces, according to the Directorate General of Meteorology (DGM). Heat waves have followed one another since the beginning of the summer and temperatures "higher than average" are announced until August, said the DGM.

In Asia, several provinces in southern and southeastern China will experience high temperatures over the weekend, reaching 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, according to the Central Meteorological Observatory. In parts of the northwest, some cities could even exceed 40°C. In Japan, authorities have urged people to be cautious as temperatures are expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius on Sunday and Monday in the east of the country, according to the local forecaster.

On the other side of the globe, the southern United States is roasting in the heat: tens of millions of Americans, from California to Texas, suffered dangerously high temperatures on Friday, which are expected to peak over the weekend. Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, recorded Friday its 15th straight day above 43 degrees, according to the US weather service.

Fires in California

In Southern California, US firefighters have been fighting since Friday against several very violent fires that have ravaged more than 1,214 hectares and led to the evacuation of the population. For climatologist Daniel Swain, of the University of California at Los Angeles, the mercury in Death Valley could equal or exceed the highest air temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, 54.4 ° C recorded at the same place in 2020 and 2021, according to several experts. Smoke from fires in Canada, where more than 500 fires are out of control, had already caused several episodes of heavy air pollution over the northeastern United States in June. In Jordan, in the grip of a heat wave that has exceeded 40 ° C in some regions, rescue efforts are fighting fires in the forests of Ajloun (north).

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In Italy, the Civil Protection issued fire alerts over a large part of Sardinia from Sunday, as well as for eastern Sicily, between Messina and Catania. Globally, June was the hottest month ever measured, according to the European agencies Copernicus and US NASA and NOAA. Then, the first full week of July was the warmest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Greenhouse gas emissions increase the power, duration and rate of repetition of heat waves, experts say. Heat is one of the deadliest weather events, WMO said. Last summer, in Europe alone, high temperatures caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.