Intense Heat Wave Sends Temperatures Soaring Across Europe

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/05/world/europe/europe-heat-wave.html

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BELGRADE, Serbia — A relentless heat wave that gripped parts of Europe this week has sent temperatures soaring to record highs for several days, causing at least two deaths and prompting European authorities to issue weather alerts.

Extreme heat in Italy and in parts of France and Spain and the Balkans has led to dozens of wildfires, damaged crops and increased power and water consumption. The authorities in some areas issued traffic restrictions and banned work in the open in the hottest part of the day as temperatures reached more than 104 Fahrenheit (40 Celsius). Some Europeans are calling the heat wave “Lucifer.”

Spain’s national weather service on Saturday issued an emergency warning for high temperatures for 31 of the country’s 50 provinces as forecasts predicted temperatures of up to 111.2.

Although this part of Europe is used to scorching summers, meteorologists say that such high temperatures lasting over several days are not that common.

“It is just too much,” said Sasa Jovanovic, 52, a real estate agent from Belgrade, the Serbian capital. “Sometimes it feels as if I cannot breathe.”

In the Alpine nation of Slovenia, the authorities reported this week the first ever “tropical night” at 4,920 feet in the mountains, meaning temperatures were higher than 68 at night.

At least 15 wildfires have been reported in Albania, and dozens of others throughout the region. Hot and dry weather has scorched crops amid fears of water shortages in Italy and Serbia.

In Romania, the police banned heavy traffic on major roads in daylight hours during the weekend because of the heat wave, while trains slowed down. A train service in southern Serbia also was delayed this week after tracks buckled in the heat.

Romania reported two heat-related deaths — a 45-year-old man collapsed and died Friday while working in a field in the northeast, and a 60-year-old man died of a heart attack in the street in an eastern port on Thursday.

At the Budapest Zoo in Hungary, a pair of 2-year-old polar bear cubs were given chunks of ice and freezing-cold watermelons to help them withstand the heat.