France Records Hottest Day Again as Europe Heat Wave Expands Eastward

A deadly Europe heat wave expanded eastward and pushed France to record-smashing temperatures again on Wednesday, with Météo-France saying Wednesday was the hottest day on record in France for the second day this week.

“European temperatures soar with heat set to break UK, French records A heatwave in Europe is expected to break June records for the UK and France”

ABC News

NBC News reported that a high of 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 Fahrenheit) was measured in parts of Landes, and that the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre restricted visiting hours as the heat scorched much of western Europe.

ABC News

The Weather Channel said Tuesday was also the hottest day on record in France, topping both July 25, 2019, and August 5, 2003, and noted that over 120 all-time heat records were broken Monday and 135 were broken Tuesday.

NBC News said the Meteo France weather service warned that “Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” and compared the conditions to a 16-day heat wave in August 2003.

BBC reported that France’s national temperature indicator hit 30C on Wednesday, the hottest day since records began in 1947, and that more than half the country remained under a red heat alert with tens of thousands of homes in the west without power.

In the United Kingdom, the Met Office issued red alerts for extreme heat, and The Weather Channel said the U.K. Met Office had issued red alerts “through Thursday” for extreme heat including the London metro and parts of Wales.

BBC reported that the UK saw its hottest June day on record in Gosport, Hampshire, on Wednesday afternoon after temperatures soared to 36.1C (97F), and said temperatures could hit 38C on Thursday.

Al Jazeera

NBC News described how the punishing temperatures prompted the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum to restrict visiting hours, and it quoted a woman arriving from the United Kingdom saying, “We knew it would be hot, we didn’t realize it would be the hottest day of on record,”.

The Weather Channel said Météo-France issued an unprecedented number of red heat wave alerts across France, and it warned that the extreme heat and winds in some areas led to a high risk of rapidly spreading wildfires.

BBC added that the risk of forest fires was higher during intense heat and said the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower closed earlier than usual, with a Louvre spokesperson saying the building was “not sufficiently adapted to climate change.”

As the heat wave intensified, NBC News said at least 48 people died in France from drowning as they tried to escape the crippling heat, and it reported that two young children were killed by heat in a car in the southern commune of Carpentras.

NPR reported that France recorded its hottest day ever Tuesday and said the heat wave has reached what it described as a “plateau of severity,” with unrelenting heat day and night and a growing number of regions tipping back into red.

CNN said at least 40 people have drowned seeking relief from the heat since June 18, and it described Météo-France’s comparison of the heat wave to one in 2003 that killed nearly 15,000 people.

BBC warned that climate change is driving up temperatures around the world but particularly in Europe, and it said the fastest-warming continent is heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service.

The Weather Channel said Météo-France issued a severity level that could approach that of August 2003, which claimed nearly 15,000 lives in France alone, while also noting that nighttime lows were forecast to reach levels never before recorded, leaving “little to no relief from the heat, even when the sun goes down.”