Weather: The next heat wave is heading towards Europe

Now the 48-degree record could drop: The next heat wave is headed for Europe

Cinderella in Europe: Southern countries have been experiencing extreme temperatures for weeks. There is no improvement in sight. The next heat wave is already on its way — and it could set a new heat record.

Tim Blumenstein / T Online

If you look up at Europe’s skies right now, you might think the weather is finally going crazy. As the northwest experiences heavy rain and storms, the southeast turns into a blazing furnace. Only on Tuesday, the Greek Meteorological Service warned of an unusually long heat phase with local temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius. Even at night, the thermometer should not fall below 30 degrees in many places.

But not only the land on the Aegean Sea suffers from the intense heat it causes Africa coming Europe pulls. There are also hot days before other popular holiday destinations. Especially in the Adriatic and Balkans, the weather may deteriorate in the coming days.

up to 50 degrees in Italy

According to the calculations of the US GFS weather forecast model, released by the Kachelmannwetter meteorological service on Tuesday Twitter Common, on the eighth of August, can reach up to 50 degrees on the Italian Adriatic coast. If the prediction turns out to be correct, it will be a new all-time record on the European continent. The previous temperature record was 48 degrees and was measured in Athens in July 1977.

Forecasts worry even weather experts. Meteorologist Clemens Grohe of Kachelmannwetter commented on the calculations, “I’ve never seen maps like this before and one can only hope in southern and southeastern Europe that things don’t turn out like this.” It remains to be seen if temperatures really rise to record levels next week. Such long-term forecasts are often flawed.

But there is no doubt that it will be hot: the DTN weather service also calculates next week in southern Italy, the Balkans, Greece and exchange Turkey With temperatures over 40 degrees. According to DTN meteorologist Rainer Buchub, a possible record value of 50 degrees is possible due to the unusual duration of the heat phase – even if it is still difficult to predict at the moment.

“I don’t want to rule that out yet,” Butshop said in an interview with T Online. The weather expert explained that the reason for the continuous heat is a stable subtropical high pressure region in which hot air spreads from the Saharan region of North Africa to the regions of southeastern Europe.

Heat encourages wildfires

The extreme heat in southern Europe can have severe consequences for the local population. Greek Civil Defense called on residents to be vigilant on Tuesday. Old and young children in particular should not expose themselves to heat. Since the temperatures do not drop even at night, the recovery of the human body becomes very stressful. The longer the harsh weather lasts, the more dangerous it will be for them God bless you.

In addition, the soil and vegetation have dried up due to rising temperatures. This helps spread forest fires. NS Portugal Even Turkey, almost every country along the Mediterranean coast has caught fire in recent weeks. Only on Wednesday did the Turkish Civil Protection Agency announce three deaths as a result of forest fires near the tourist resort of Antalya. The fires also caused massive damage to the Italian holiday island of Sardinia days ago, and about 20,000 hectares of forest area has already been destroyed.

In Greece, about 50 bush and forest fires threatened several suburbs of the capital Athens at the start of the week. These are now under control again, but in light of the constant heat and expected strong winds, bad memories are waking up in the country. In 1987, an estimated 4,000 people died in a similar heat stage. At that time, there were few air conditioning systems and city apartments became a deadly trap, especially for the elderly.

Temperature records continue to fall

It wasn’t until the end of June that the dramatic proportions of Canada’s extreme heat phases became clear. With temperatures just below 50 degrees Celsius, more than 700 people have died in the province of British Columbia on the Pacific coast alone. In the village of Lytton, 49.6 degrees were measured – a new record. The peak value in Canada was previously 45 degrees. A few days later, bushfires completely destroyed the community.

Other places in the Northern Hemisphere recently set new record temperatures: in the Russian city of Pechora, located on the edge of the Arctic, 32.5 degrees were measured in May, according to the State Weather Service, in Norwegian Lapland, the thermometer showed 34.3 degrees. At the beginning of July.

The relationship between global warming and heat waves

The fact that such thermal records occur frequently is also due to global warming. This is the result of a study conducted by an international team of researchers and published in early July. Scientists fed more than 20 simulations with the latest heat data from Canada and United States of America.

Without global warming, a heat wave like the one in Canada would have occurred 150 times less than normal, Dutch climate researcher Sjokje Filip told SRF. Temperatures were also two degrees lower on average. However, extreme heat waves are still very rare today. According to the researchers, it is estimated that such a thermal barrier occurs once every thousand years. However, this can change as temperatures rise.