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On Saturday, France, Spain, and other Western European countries braced for a scorching June weekend that is expected to break records and raise concerns about forest fires and the impacts of climate change. On Friday, temperatures in regions of France reached 40 degrees Celsius.
The weather on Saturday will represent the peak of a June heatwave, which is consistent with scientists’ warnings that such phenomena will now occur earlier than usual due to climate change.
Temperatures are expected to drop slightly starting Sunday, with thunderstorms expected in parts of France including in Europe.
However, the French state weather forecaster Meteo France reported that June temperature records had already been broken in 11 areas on Friday and that temperatures could reach 42 degrees Celsius in some areas on Saturday.
Forest fires burned nearly 9,000 hectares (22,240 acres) of land in Spain’s northwest Sierra de la Culebra region on Friday, forcing 200 people to flee their homes, according to regional authorities.
In addition, due to a nearby fire, more than 3,000 people have been evacuated from the Puy du Fou amusement park in central Spain.
Firefighters were also battling fires in other areas, including Catalonia’s woodlands, where weather patterns complicated the fight.
On Friday, World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez commended firefighters “who risk their lives on the frontlines of fires.”
Most of the country experienced temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday.
Hospitals are overcrowded
By Friday afternoon, more than half of France’s departments were on the highest or second-highest heat alert level.
“Hospitals are at capacity, but they are maintaining up with demand,” Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon told journalists in Vienne, southeast of Lyon.
Schoolchildren were told to stay home in areas where the alert level was “red,” and the health ministry set up a special heatwave hotline.
The Red Cross also organized efforts to allocate fresh water to Toulouse’s homeless community, where temperatures are expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
“There are more street deaths in the summer than in the winter,” said 67-year-old volunteer Hugues Juglair.
Meanwhile, rock and metal fans at the Hellfest music festival in western France were sprayed with water from hoses and massive vaporizers in front of the stage as they headbanged or rebounded to Deftones and The Offspring.
“This is the earliest thunderstorm ever recorded in France” since 1947, according to Meteo France climatologist Matthieu Sorel.
He referred to the weather as a “marker of climate change” because “many monthly or even all-time temperature data are likely to be broken in several regions.”
