A record heat wave persists on Sunday 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, illustrations of global warming .
“I really struggle with the heat. I bought a mini-fan, an umbrella and bottles of water,” laments Lilu Da Costa Rosa, a 48-year-old Brazilian saleswoman visiting Rome, where the thermometer reached 34°C at 1:30 p.m. local time. In Italy, 16 cities are on red alert across the country, with expected temperatures of 36/37°C, but temperatures felt close to 40.
Regardless of the heat, there were still 15,000 pilgrims and tourists, according to the Vatican gendarmerie, to gather in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday to listen to Pope Francis recite the Angelus prayer. among them, François Mbemba, a 29-year-old Congolese priest. He says: “This heat continues into the night, we have trouble sleeping. And we who are dressed in black, we sweat like hell. “It’s hard to adapt, it’s hotter than in Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he said.
Spain is emerging from a sweltering week whose consequences were felt on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, where a fire ravaged 5,000 hectares of land this weekend and forced the evacuation of 4,000 people. “I feel helpless watching everything burn, two entire villages being evacuated,” said Patricia Sanchez, 37, a member of the Spanish Red Crescent.
In this island, devastated by a volcanic eruption in 2021 which had forced the populations to move, “people who have already lost everything because of the volcano (Tajogaite) and who had to rebuild their lives in the north of the island, risk losing everything again”, worries the rescuer.
The Spanish meteorological agency on Sunday issued an orange alert for Monday warning of temperatures of 38° to 42° over large areas of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, a red alert (extreme danger) on Monday for areas of Andalusia, and Tuesday in Aragon, Catalonia and Majorca (42° to 44°). In Romania, temperatures will be around 39 degrees on Monday.
In Greece, where temperatures are expected to drop slightly, the Acropolis of Athens was again closed to the public on Sunday between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Local authorities urged people to be careful and warned of the high risk of fires.
Japan issued heat stroke alerts on Sunday for tens of millions of its inhabitants, living in 20 of the country’s 47 prefectures, as near-record temperatures hit much of the country.
In Tokyo, where the temperature reaches 36°C, “just walking around is exhausting”, admits Coline Grison, 24, a tourist from France. “We sweat without doing anything,” she told AFP. The country is also facing torrential rains that have killed at least eight people, including a man found dead on Saturday in a flooded car in the north.
In South Korea, rescuers struggle to reach people trapped in a flooded tunnel after heavy rains in recent days have left at least 33 dead and ten missing.
The weather services of China have issued several warning messages, predicting temperatures that can reach 45°C in the partially desert region of Xinjiang, and 39°C in the southern region of Guangxi.
In the United States, from Florida (south-east) to California (west) via Texas (south), a large part of the southern United States is still in the grip of a heat wave on Sunday. described as “oppressive” by the weather services, which predict several temperature records.
In the famous Death Valley, California, the thermometer climbed to 51°C on Saturday evening, while 54°C are expected on Sunday. In addition to the high temperatures, southern California is burning due to several very violent fires still in progress, which have already ravaged more than 1,214 hectares and led to the evacuation of the population. Other parts of the United States are at risk of severe weather.
“Strong to severe thunderstorms, heavy rain and flooding are possible in many places, particularly and unfortunately in New England, already saturated” by recent rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.
A flash flood killed three people Saturday in a county north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and four more people are still missing there Sunday, local firefighters said.
In Canada, more than 10 million hectares have already burned this year, a total far greater than anything the country has ever known, according to a report which remains provisional with 906 fires still active on Saturday, including 570 considered to be out of order. control, according to national figures from the Canadian Interagency Wildfire Center (CIFFC).
Globally, the month of June was the hottest ever measured, according to the European Copernicus and American NASA and NOAA agencies. Then, the first full week of July was in turn the hottest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing the strength, duration and rate of repetition of heat waves, experts say. Heat is one of the deadliest weather events, the WMO said. Last summer, in Europe alone, high temperatures caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.
