The world is being ravaged by a heat waves that hit regions from the Middle East to Southwest United States.
“Parts of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the USA have seen very, very high May and June temperatures. The heatwaves are unusually early, and they are occurring in the context of the Earth experiencing yet another exceptionally hot year,” said Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
The wild fires that claimed 64 lives in Portugal last weekend were also related to the hot weather, said Nullis. “Portugal, as we have seen has been hit by very, very devastating, very tragic wildfires. One of the contributing factors to that was extremely high temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius (104 F), which Portugal saw over the weekend.”
In France, 51 departments issued their second highest alert after temperature records were broken.
“Meteo France is saying the very high temperatures will continue until Friday when there will be some respite,” said Nullis.
Though far from the extreme heat seen in Nevada and California in the United States, where temperatures could crack 49 (120) degrees, the 38 (100) degrees seen in France is over 15 degrees hotter than normal temperatures this time of year.
According to WMO, Spain saw record temperatures for June, with the Granada airport reaching 41.5 (106.7) degrees.
In North Africa and Middle East, the temperature topped 50 (122) degree Celsius on Saturday in the United Arab Emirates.
