The fastest warming continent: Europe’s deadly heatwaves

AFP :
The sizzling temperatures experienced by several countries in southern Europe over the past few days are part of a series of brutally hot, dry summers caused by climate change.

Spain has been sweltering under its fourth heatwave of the season, while Greece is struggling for the second time in a month against major wildfires.

Emissions of greenhouse gases are enabling increasingly intense and long-lasting heatwaves, especially in Europe, which the World Meteorological Organization says is the world’s fastest-warming continent.

AFP looks back at a series of heatwaves in Europe that have left tens of thousands of people dead.

The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe’s recorded history and caused the worst drought in centuries and devastating wildfires in France and Spain.

Two heatwaves, one in mid-June and one in July, also made it one of the deadliest summers in years, according to the Nature Medicine journal, which estimates the heat killed more than 61,000 people.

France recorded the biggest rise in heat compared to its previous summer average, with a jump of 2.43?, Nature’s figures showed.

The mercury topped 40? for the first time in the UK in July.

Between late July and early August, Greece endured the country’s worst heatwave in over 30 years.

In Spain, temperatures hit 47? in parts of the south.

The resulting drought sparked large wildfires along the Mediterranean, from Turkey to Spain.

The summer of 2019 brought two heatwaves, one in late June and one in mid-July.

In France, temperatures hit an all-time record of 46? in the southern town of Verargues.

In late July, northern Europe sizzled, with temperatures of 42.6? recorded at Lingen in northwestern Germany.

The second half of July and the beginning of August 2018 saw very high temperatures across much of Europe.

The Danube fell to its lowest level in 100 years in some areas, exposing World War II tanks in Serbia submerged since the conflict.