Temperatures crossed the 40C threshold in the UK on Tuesday, the first country to be hit like the rest of western Europe by a heatwave that sparked devastating forest fires, particularly in France.
This is the second strong heat phenomenon in just under a month in Europe. According to scientists, this multiplication is a direct consequence of the climate crisis, as greenhouse gas emissions increase in intensity, duration and frequency.
The mercury hit 40.2C at 11:50 GMT at Heathrow Airport in west London, with 40.2C topping a level never seen in the UK, the Met Office weather agency said.
The previous historical temperature record dates from July 2019 with 38.7 degrees.
Transport Secretary Grant Schapps stressed to the BBC that “no”, the country’s Victorian-era public transport system was not capable of coping with such heat.
“All trains are canceled because of the heat. I do not understand. They have trains in Australia. which work. What’s the problem here?” asked Ashley Meeloo, a 62-year-old user from London.
Hundreds of firefighters were also on hand to tackle a blaze that ravaged a village east of London.
The government is accused of taking the phenomenon lightly. Retiring Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday skipped an emergency meeting on the crisis, preferring to attend a farewell party, and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urged Britons to “enjoy the sun”.
Environmental activists from the group Extinction Rebellion smashed the windows of News UK, which publishes the tabloid The Sun, on Tuesday morning in protest at certain media outlets’ treatment of the heatwave.
“The Sun chose to feature images of women in bikinis, beaches and happy kids with ice cream,” the group said. Another tabloid, the Daily Express, headlined Monday: “It’s not the end of the world, keep cool and move on.”
Elsewhere in Europe, Belgium fears records, the thermometer can climb up to 40°C. Exceptionally, the large state museums are free for over 65s who can find some freshness there.
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Two nuclear reactors near Antwerp have had to reduce their output by more than 50% to limit the temperature of the water discharged into the river.
In France, temperatures are expected to drop on Tuesday on the Atlantic coast after a complicated night in the Gironde in the south-west of the country on the front lines of the two huge fires that have already devastated more than 19,000 hectares of forest.
In view of these gigantic fires, a total of 37,000 people had to be evacuated in six days.
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On Monday, absolute heat records were broken in 64 communities, especially along the Atlantic coast.
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“Unfortunately, it was something that was expected,” Matthieu Sorel, climatologist at Météo-France, told AFP. But even more important than the number of records broken is “the amplitude” of the gaps between the old records and some of the new ones.
In Spain, where the extreme heat wave has been raging for almost ten days, forest fires continued to rage on Tuesday, especially in the province of Zamora (north-west). According to the state authorities, almost 6,000 people had to be evacuated because of the flames, which destroyed several thousand hectares of meadows and forests.
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On the temperature side, a slight recovery has been announced by the national weather agency, while mercury has happily topped 40C in recent days.
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“Climate change is killing people (…), but also our ecosystem, our biodiversity,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday.
More than 1,400 firefighters continued to battle the fires in Portugal as of Tuesday morning.
The two most worrying wildfires are happening in the far north of the country. One of them mobilized almost 700 firefighters on Tuesday.
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A couple in their 70s were killed in the area on Monday as they tried to escape the blaze.
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A further rise in temperature is expected in the country from Wednesday.
Across Germany is also feeling the heatwave, but in Lower Saxony (north-west) temperatures could reach 40°C on Tuesday, close to a record 41.2°C set in 2019, which could be beaten on Tuesday or Wednesday . according to meteorologists.