In Denmark, the temperature reached 37°C. The country has never been this hot since weather records began in 1874. The Czech Republic also recorded its all-time record temperature at 40.6°C. Germany also set a new heat record with 41.5°C.
The heatwave spread across central and eastern Europe on Saturday June 27, breaking temperature records one after the other. This Sunday, June 28, at least 191 million Europeans are expected to once again experience temperatures above 35°C, particularly in Germany, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
In several countries, this climatic phenomenon is putting health systems under pressure. Spanish authorities have reported more than 200 deaths. In Cologne, Germany, the emergency services are increasingly overloaded: “After ten consecutive days of extreme heat and without noticeable nighttime cooling, the situation is serious,” indicates the city administration. On Saturday, seven people were found unconscious in their homes, mainly under the roofs.
The continent on alert as far as Romania
Germany is also canceling a number of events that were planned: Hamburg will not see its half marathon held. The Frankfurt cycling route and Ironman race have been shortened. The prestigious Berlin Philharmonic is relaxing its dress code: men can take off their jackets and will have the right to roll up their sleeves. It should in fact be 41°C this Sunday in the German capital.
In Slovakia, six people drowned on Friday and Saturday in swimming pools or lakes in the Bratislava region, according to police. In Hungary, the army was mobilized to distribute thousands of bottles of water at public events. In the east of the continent, Romania is preparing to issue red alerts from Monday on almost its entire territory. The National Weather Service is forecasting “extreme temperatures” and “tropical nights” through July 1.
A “cold bubble” above the Atlantic
Repeated heatwaves are an unequivocal marker of global warming, caused mainly by the combustion of fossil fuels. These heat waves could further be accentuated by a “cold bubble” above the Atlantic, a large area of abnormally cold waters south of Iceland and Greenland.
Studies suggest that it modifies the trajectory and speed of the atmospheric current that sweeps the continent from west to east. These changes may favor the formation of the current “heat dome” which is stagnating over Europe. “This sequence of events explains why Europe warms more quickly than other regions of the world during the summer,” according to Marilena Oltmanns, ocean and climate physicist and professor at the University of Bremen, Germany.
