France endured sizzling temperatures on Sunday, with trains, concerts and sports events canceled and authorities cracking down on drinking alcohol in public, as an exceptional heat wave unfurled across parts of Europe.
Multiple drownings were reported as people sought relief in whatever water they could find.
About a third of France is under a “red alert” for heat, and high temperatures reached 40 C (104 F) in some areas, in a country where air conditioning isn’t widespread. The forecast for Monday is even hotter.
The Eiffel Tower and other Paris venues set up misting stations to cool down crowds. Tourists in Rome dunked in fountains.
Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of the fatalities were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month. More above-average temperatures are expected this summer, which can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.
Human-caused climate change is tied to increasing extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records. A rapid study found that human-caused climate change was responsible for killing about 1,500 people in an unusually early European heat wave in May.
Waterways offer comfort, and dangers
In this latest European hot spell, French media reported that four children drowned Saturday. Summer drownings are an annual problem that health authorities say worsens during hot spells. One man drowned in southwestern Germany and three others were missing after swimming in the Rhine River, the German news agency dpa reported.
Canal Saint Martin in Paris drew throngs Sunday splashing and diving off a bridge, despite authorities’ attempts to control the crowds.
“With this heat, it’s the only way to have fun while going out,″ swimmer Nicolas Cruz told The Associated Press.
Zouzou Hobbs was skeptical at first of swimming in the murky urban canal.
”But it’s hot. I’m going to risk it,”’ she decided. ‘’We need to cool off before tonight when we’re gonna be dancing.”
Solstice parties draw large crowds in extreme heat
France’s annual Music Day on Sunday was of particular concern. The nationwide summer solstice celebration involves thousands of concerts in village squares, rave venues and Paris clubs, bringing communities together and increasingly drawing British and other international visitors. Some concerts were canceled.
The French government banned drinking booze in “red alert” zones, and ordered organizers of music day events to limit alcohol consumption to “preserve emergency services and allow medics to concentrate on taking care of the most vulnerable.”
Authorities are notably worried about people living in the baking streets, and elderly people in nursing homes or isolated in their homes. About 15,000 older people died in France in a 2003 heat wave that became a national reckoning.
The government mobilized emergency services and military forces for reinforced wildfire readiness, imposed tightened surveillance of water supplies to France’s many nuclear reactors, and ordered 845 schools to close Monday.
Spain, Italy, Germany swelter as tourists seek relief
Spain kicked off the summer with large parts of the country on alert because of temperatures expected to hover around 40 C (104 F) — even in the interior of the Basque region, an area in the north of the country, which typically experiences cooler temperatures.
Authorities have suspended outdoor sports and cultural activities in the region. The heat wave is expected to scorch Spain at least through Wednesday.
In Italy, authorities expanded heat warnings — referred to locally as “red flags” — to eight cities Sunday in northern and central parts of the country. Temperatures there are mostly in the upper 30s C (high 90s to low 100s F).
At one farm outside Milan, owners set up fans and sprinklers to keep cows cool, while visitors to Milan Fashion Week huddled under parasols and clutched fans. In Rome, tourists dunked their arms and occasionally their faces into the city’s famed fountain pools.
German meteorologists are forecasting temperatures of up to 37 C (98 F) for Monday and Tuesday, and up to 39 C (102 F) on Wednesday.
The U.K. weather office has issued an “extreme heat” warning for much of southern England and parts of Wales from Monday until Thursday, saying temperatures could reach 38 C (100 F). The current record for a June day is 35.6 C (96 F), reached in 1976.
Thunderstorms also threatened regions in Germany and Poland.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is convening a new government heat crisis meeting Sunday, and ordered government ministers to plan for better adapting France to heat waves in the future — including “via air conditioning, if necessary.”
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Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, Jill Lawless in London, and Teresa Medrano in Madrid, contributed to this report.
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