Temperatures above 40 degrees were measured in the UK for the first time on Tuesday. In Belgium and Germany, heat records fell very thinly. Heat causes many problems elsewhere in Europe, including wildfires. In France, Italy and Greece, the fire services are very busy. Although the worst heat in Spain and Portugal appears to be over, wildfires are still raging there.

In the London area, firefighters received five times as many calls on Tuesday afternoon. Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke of the critical situation given the pressure on the fire service.

Calculation models from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) assume nearly a thousand additional deaths this month from the heatwave. Hot records were broken at at least 34 places in England on Tuesday.

In Italy, forest fires occur in Tuscany and near Rome, Milan and Trieste. By afternoon, an area of ​​365 hectares outside Pisa had burned, said Eugenio Giani, governor of Tuscany.

Athens area fell victim to forest fires again

In the Gironde department of France, the forest fires that have raged in the Bordeaux area since July 12 have become the largest forest fires in thirty years. An area the size of Eindhoven has burned, forcing some 34,000 people to flee their homes.

Wildfires are also raging around the Greek capital, Athens, a region that already faced a huge sea of ​​fires last year. Several suburbs have been evacuated on orders from the authorities.

Spain is still struggling with about thirty wildfires spread across the country. In the territories of Galicia and Castile and Leon, the authorities are monitoring the situation closely. This year, 70,000 hectares of nature have burned, more than double this decade’s average. In parts of Spain, it has not rained for almost half a year.

NU reader MF Cheng submitted the photo above from the Pisa area.