Governments across Europe issued extreme heat warnings with temperatures forecast to top +40°C in several parts of the continent.
In the UK the Met Office has issued its first ever “red” warning for extreme heat, cautioning there was a “risk to life”.
The alert covers large parts of England on Monday and Tuesday when temperatures could exceed +40°C for the first time since records began – posing a risk of serious illness and even death among healthy people, the UK Met office said.
The British record high temperature is +38.7°C set in 2019.
Rail passengers and users of the London Underground are being advised not to travel on Monday and Tuesday unless it is absolutely necessary; while schools and care homes have been urged to take steps to protect students and older residents who are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures.
Red warnings extended across France
Météo-France has now extended its red heatwave alert to more than a dozen departments, warning about “hazardous conditions of exceptional intensity” and predicting that high temperature records will be broken.
“Fifteen departments on the Atlantic coast are placed on heatwave red alert. Orange heatwave vigilance is extended to the north and center of the country to a total of 51 departments,” Météo-France wrote in its Monday morning bulletin.
“The heat increases, and the heatwave spreads over the country.”
In Spain there have been 360 deaths attributed to heat in recent weeks with temperatures hitting +46°C; while in Portugal as many as 659 have died over the past week as temperatures soared.
The extreme heat is accompanied by a wildfire crisis that has prompted thousands to evacuate parts of France, Spain and Portugal.
Seville begins to name heatwave phenomenons
The southern Spanish city of Seville has become the first city in the world that names and categorizes heatwaves in an effort to raise awareness of the health hazards caused by extreme heat and the precautions citizens should take.
Experts behind the project, called proMETEO Sevilla, ultimately hope that by naming the most severe heatwaves they will save lives.
The heatwave affecting Seville and much of Spain this week is currently rated as a category 2, a heatwave of “high risk” affecting all of the population, according to proMETEO, which looks a degrees of severity in sickness and deaths to different parts of the population.
When a heatwave is given category 3 it means there is a “very high risk” to the health of the entire population and maximum precautions should be taken to mitigate these impacts.
Category 3 heatwaves also get a name, starting in reverse alphabetical order, in the hopes that it sticks with residents and underlines the severity of the phenomenon.
The first category 3 heatwave, which has not yet been declared, will be called Zoe.