A heat wave and a devastating drought that has been going on
for the last three months continued in Europe. France
reported its highest temperatures since 1949. There were also
reports throughout Europe of deaths attributable to the heat.
England suffered its hottest day ever on Monday, recording
38.1C (100.22F) at Heathrow Airport.
From Russia to the Atlantic to Britain, temperatures have
reached the highest levels in decades. And the worst could
still be ahead, according to weather officials.
The United States has experienced an unusually wet summer,
especially the East and Midwest.
Unusually high temperatures and a summer long dearth of rain
in Europe have damaged crops, fanned wildfires, and left
people struggling to survive conditions to which they are not
accustomed.
Power grids were under strain as people who have avoided air
conditioners suddenly bought them. In many European cities
air conditioning is not so common, as the mild weather
usually does not require it.
In many cities in northern Italy public buildings are not air
conditioned, and employees have been protesting the heat.
This year in Rome it was 98.6 (37C) degrees one day last
week, while in Florence, it was 104 (40C).
Farmers in Italy are warning that the harvest of grapes,
olives, peaches and apricots might turn out to be 50 percent
below normal. The prices of many fruits and vegetables have
shot up by 20 percent, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
Agricultural groups estimate the financial toll on Italian
farmers at about $6 billion so far.
Observers said that individual weeks in the past had been
hotter, but they did not recall such a three-month stretch,
from early May to the present, so consistently hot.
The hot, arid weather left conditions ripe for wildfires,
especially in Portugal, where thousands of firefighters are
battling blazes that have, over the last week, destroyed more
than 130,000 acres of woodland and killed at least 11 people.
Hundreds of other people, in both Portugal and adjacent areas
of Spain, have been evacuated from their homes. Over 1,500
firefighters were brought out to fight the blazes in central
Portugal, backed by aircraft and heavy equipment.
There were also forest fires in Spain and France, although
not on the scale of Portugal, which declared a national
disaster.
CNN quoted Professor Johann Goldammer, director of Global
Fire Monitoring Center, based in Freiburg, Germany, as saying
that the scale of the fires is normal and part of the yearly
fires that ravage forests around the world, but he did not
comment about the heat and drought.
In some areas of Spain and Portugal temperatures have
surpassed 110 degrees. Spanish officials said the heat had
been responsible for at least 12 deaths in the last week.
France is suffering a similar drought and heat. Temperatures
of 104 (40C) were reported last week. Farmers in much of the
country have had to observe alternate-day irrigation plans.
Authorities sprayed cold water on the walls of the country's
main nuclear reactors to keep them from overheating, after
temperatures rose to two degrees short of requiring an
emergency shutdown.
Ships on the Danube in Eastern Europe carry restricted loads
so they do not scrape bottom. Water levels in the river have
declined so much that dredgers in Romania had to deepen some
channels.
Britain has canceled some trains on busy routes and imposed
reduced, temporary speed limits on others, to make sure that
rails do not buckle in the temperatures nearing 95 degrees.
The record temperature there is 99 degrees (37C), set in
1990, but some forecasters expect that to be beaten before
the summer is over.
Around the city of Bradenburg, in eastern Germany, officials
said the summer drought had contributed to 300 forest fires
this year.
