BERLIN: Tens of millions face a weekend of extreme temperatures in Europe as a deadly heatwave moves eastwards, with German forecasters warning that more records could be broken and eastern countries issuing a slew of red alerts for the coming days.
AFP analysis suggested almost 200 million would face temperatures of more than 35C on Saturday as an unprecedented hot spell that has already seen records tumble in Britain, France, Switzerland drags on.
Scores of people have died either through heat-related illness or drowning accidents and emergency services in several countries have said their facilities are saturated.
Street parties and music festivals were cancelled in France, Germany and the Netherlands — though Pride March went ahead in Budapest despite the extreme heat warnings.
And both Switzerland and France had switched off nuclear reactors as the water used for cooling was in danger of overheating nearby rivers.
The German Weather Service (DWD) issued a red alert for most of the country on Saturday, and said late afternoon that it had recorded its highest ever temperature with 41.5C recorded in eastern Germany. “It can’t be ruled out that temperatures could approach 42C,” the service said, which would mean another all-time heat record just a day after the previous one.
Denmark’s weather service said early afternoon Saturday that the country had recorded its highest temperature ever, and then an hour later said the record had lasted just an hour, with the mercury hitting 37C just north of Aarhus. The Czech Republic also recorded its highest-ever temperature, with a reading of 40.6C just north of Prague.
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels — and are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
Experts said a “heat dome” of trapped air from north Africa was causing the intense weather, and although the phenomenon was not unprecedented, the temperatures were.
Romania was the latest country to issue a red alert, putting out a warning that almost the entire country would face extreme heat from Monday to Wednesday.
Slovakia had issued a similar warning and confirmed that Friday night had been the warmest on record with temperatures not dropping below 26.3C.
Denis Ovdyienko, a courier, told AFP in Bratislava on Friday he was struggling to keep cool and had to rely on public fountains.
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