A heatwave has gripped southern Europe, prompting authorities to issue health and wildfire warnings. Firefighters in France have been mobilised to tackle early summer fires and 84 of the country's 101 administrative areas have been put on heat alert.
France, Italy, Portugal and Spain have been sweltering for several days and several regions are on red alert. In Spain, temperatures reached 46C Saturday in El Granado.
The heatwave is driven by a heat dome – a strong anticyclone that traps warm air and prevents cooler systems from entering.
Only a small sliver of the country in the northwest was not sweltering, according to the Météo France weather service, which said the heatwave was due to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"This is unprecedented," Agnes Pannier-Runacher, France's ecology transition minister said as a record 84 of the nation's 96 mainland departments were placed on the second-highest "orange" heat alert.
First heatwave of the summer
The summer's first major heatwave has seen authorities in the countries along the Mediterranean's northern coast urging people to seek shelter.
Ambulances stood on standby near tourist hotspots as experts warned that such heatwaves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent.
Already last week, Greek firefighters had to battle a forest blaze on the coast south of Athens that forced some evacuations.
Firefighters were on standby after blazes broke out Sunday in France and Turkey, fed by the heat and strong winds.
Wildfires broke out in the Corbieres area of Aude in the southwest, where temperatures topped 40 degrees, forcing the evacuation of a campsite and abbey as a precaution.
The south of the country saw highs of more than 40 degrees Celsius Sunday, with temperatures between 35C and 38C across the region, national weather service Meteo-France said.
It reported 40.1C in the village of Vinsobres in the southeast.
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The crushing temperatures which began in the south of the country on Friday will have spread to nearly all of France by Monday, with highs of 37 to 40 degrees Celsius forecast along the Mediterranean.
The number of departments under orange alert – the second-highest level – will rise to 84 on Monday, with temperatures expected to peak Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing highs of up to 41C.
An interministerial crisis meeting on the heatwave was convened Sunday evening to review health guidelines in particular, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told BFMTV.
Some cities have already closed schools for the beginning of the week, as a protective measure.
'Urban heat islands'
Elsewhere in Europe, 21 cities across Italy were also on high alert for extreme heat, including Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence, Rome and Catania.
Two-thirds of Portugal was also on high alert Sunday for extreme heat and forest fires, while several areas in the south, including Lisbon, were under a red warning until Monday night, according to authorities.
Scientists say climate change is stoking hotter and more intense heatwaves, particularly in cities where the so-called "urban heat island" effect amplifies temperatures among tightly packed buildings.
"The heat waves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and more intense in recent years," said Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA).
"A further increase in temperature and heat extremes is expected in the future, so we will have to get used to temperatures with peaks even higher than those we are experiencing now," she told French news agency AFP.
(with newswires)
