Europe sizzles as heatwave returns

Europe sizzles as heatwave returns
By Claire Heffron
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button

Europe has been basking in record breaking temperatures with another heatwave on the way...

ADVERTISEMENT

As a plume of hot air from Europe and Africa engulfs Britain, it will spread into the rest of Europe, sparking wildfires, thunderstorms and even droughts.

With usually typical rainy summers, the UK’s temperatures have reached 30 degrees this week, although this has resulted in spreading wildfires on the Pennines of Northern England. Around 100 soldiers were deployed to the hills of Greater Manchester to battle the blaze which can be seen from space.

The army was called in to help battle a moorland blaze which has been spreading for days in hot weather near Manchester

A combination of intense heat and dry vegetation means similar blazes could spread through western Europe.

The reason for this is down to anticyclone conditions — a weather phenomenon that sees a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure that can lead to clear skies and cooler, drier air.

The continent is currently experiencing record-breaking temperatures, with May being the warmest in more than a century. It's turning out to be a summer to remember for most of the continent, with record-breaking temperatures experienced in many countries.

June is looking to be another record month, both in terms of temperatures and lack of rainfall, and it could get even hotter on the continent, with the mercury topping a blistering 38 degrees in the coming months.

According to the EU's global monitoring site Copernicus, temperature anomalies are expected to linger over the region.

Data shows Europe will have a warmer than usual June.

Forecaster AccuWeather said southern France and northern Italy will experience the most intense heat, raising fears this summer could be even worse than the "Lucifer" heatwave last year.

Temperatures this week have been up to 10 degrees above average. Temperatures are expected to soar well past 32C in Lyon and Toulouse, France, and in Florence and Berlin, Germany. Madrid is expected to reach 35C as early as next week while Athens, in Greece, could get as hot as 34C.

Ukraine and other Balkan countries could be hit with intense droughts in the coming months and will also be hit with violent thunderstorms and possibly flash flooding, sparked by the mixture of unseasonable warmth and moist air from the Mediterranean.

Share this articleComments

You might also like

Japan: Heatwave grips nation

French budget deficit rose to 5.5% in 2023

'Disturbing': Rough sleepers and migrants removed from Paris ahead of Olympics