This summer, a hot July has spread across all over Europe as a heat wave builds from Spain to Scandinavia. According to accuweather.com, there will be some locations in Europe that may have their highest temperature of the year on this last week of July. The locations are in Sweden; Stockholm, Netherlands; Amsterdam, Germany; Frankfurt, France; Paris and Spain; Madrid. Higher temperatures will continue to soar above 32C in some countries in Europe.
Greece and Sweden are among the worst-effected areas. In Greece, the fast moving wildfires has killed at least 60 people and more than 170 people were injured on the villages in the Athens region. Authorities rushed to evacuate tourist and locals to leave their residence along the coast as the fire consumed the town. Many have died due to inability to escape in time. More than a 100 homes and 200 vehicles are burning.
The Photograph taken at Mati, Greece: REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis.
The Photograph taken at Mati, Greece: REUTERS/Costas Baltas.
On Monday, newyorktimes reported that the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short an official visit to Bosnia because of the fires, and on Tuesday, he announced three days of national mourning for the victims.
“It’s a difficult night for Greece,” Mr. Tsipras said. “We are dealing with something completely asymmetric.”
The massive wildfires rage also disrupt Sweden. With the usual temperatures (for summer) in Sweden is around 23C, the country is being vulnerable with the constance heat weather. The temperature now are approaching above 32C which makes it the hottest in 71 years. Sweden has been getting help from other countries in the EU such as Italy, France and Germany due to lack of man power and capacity to dealt with the crisis. More than 25,000 hectares are still burning in several location in Sweden.
Neighbouring Norway was also hit by wildfires in 100 locations last week with its hottest May temperatures on record. On July 15th, one firefighter was killed trying to contain the wildfire. Destroying more than 800 hectares land in Baltic regions Latvia, the wildfires have spread and raged for five days.
As for Finland’s, the fires have damaged the grassland and forest around northernmost Lapland province which are near the Russian border.
Source: thelocal, thetimes, bbc, accuweather, dw, reuters, thenewyorktimes.