Firefighting planes scrambled from south of France to tackle huge wildfire near Paris. Officials say blaze in Fontainebleau forest is of ‘exceptional scale’, with 900 homes evacuated and road and rail links hit

 

The wildfire in France’s Fontainebleau forest, about 40 miles south-east of Paris. Photograph: Franck Desprez/SDIS 77/AFP/Getty Images

by  Angelique Chrisafis in Paris and Sam Jones in Madrid

 

French firefighters are tackling a blaze of unprecedented scale sweeping through Fontainebleau forest south-east of Paris, while in southern Spain the prime minister visited the scene of a deadly wildfire and warned: “The climate emergency kills.”

The fire in Fontainebleau, a one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the French capital that today is dotted with villages, began late on Sunday afternoon. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest.

By Monday afternoon it had not been contained and “continued to progress moderately”, said Pierre Ory, the prefect of the Seine-et-Marne department. The Paris region remains under the highest heatwave alert.

The mayor of Fontainebleau, Julien Gondard, said he was shocked and angered. “This exceptional area is consumed by flames, we’ve never seen anything like this,” he told the local TV station ICI Paris Île-de-France. “The forest is fragile and it’s in a critical condition.”

 Fire officials said it could take several days to several weeks to fully contain the fire. They described it as “very virulent” and of “exceptional scale”.

 

The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, visiting an operations room in Fontainebleau on Monday, said: “The aim is to contain the fire.”

Nuñez said about 900 homes had been evacuated, no homes had yet been burned and no one was injured. He said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the fire.

“The fire began at several points at the end of yesterday afternoon – around 10 points, which would suggest it could have been voluntary in origin. I won’t say more because an investigation is ongoing,” he said.

fficials said it could take several weeks to fully contain the fire. Photograph: SDIS 77/Frank Desprez/EPA

Nuñez said forest fires had burned 32,000 hectares of land in France so far this year, “already more than the 2025 season and it’s only 13 July”.

He added that, since the start of the summer, 44 people had been arrested across the country on suspicion of being responsible for the outbreak of fires.

High-speed rail was affected after the fire broke out on Sunday because key lines pass near the forest. The French rail company SNCF said there were delays of up to eight hours for trains arriving at or leaving from Gare de Lyon in Paris. On Monday morning, rail services were returning to normal.

Half of the 700 residents of the village of Le Vaudoué were evacuated and firefighters were operating in several other towns in the area, the local Seine-et-Marne fire service said.

Firefighting planes near Fontainebleau, France, on Monday. Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

Without the use of firefighting planes, other villages would already have been evacuated, said Olivier Compta, who was overseeing the firefighting operation.

About 400 firefighters have been working to contain the fire, which ignited two days before the 14 July Bastille Day national holiday.

Eric Brocardi, a spokesperson for France’s national federation of firefighters, said it was the first time firefighting planes had been sent up from the normally drier and hotter south of the country to extinguish fires in the Paris region. Two firefighting helicopters and an observation aircraft were also helping to tackle the blaze, he said. “The aim is to save lives and property.”

Earlier, firefighters dealt with a fire that had blocked a highway running east from Paris and disrupted a high-speed train line to the south of France.

 

The Paris region, along with large parts of the rest of France, has had a succession of heatwaves since May. Temperature records have also been broken in several other countries across Europe and the heatwaves have caused thousands of excess deaths, according to estimates in Spain, France, Belgium and Britain.

In Spain, where 13 people are known to have been killed by last week’s deadly wildfire in the south-eastern region of Almería, and where 10 people are still unaccounted for, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, renewed his calls for joint national action to address the effects of the climate emergency.

“A third of all the land that burned in Europe last year was here in Spain,” he said during a visit to the affected area on Monday morning. “That’s not just down to the fires that have traditionally happened; it’s also due to a worsening because of climate change that’s happening across the Iberian peninsula and especially in Spain.”

Europeans voice concerns amid sweltering heatwave - video

 

Sánchez repeated his calls for a “state pact” to tackle the changing climate. “It’s not just about reacting when these fires hit; it’s also about preventing them, building perimeters, and about teaching people how to react when a fire – or any of the civil emergencies that are unfortunately becoming more common – hits.”

He added: “I’ve said it many times before, but the climate emergency kills. We’re seeing that across Europe and we’re seeing that in Spain.”

Spanish authorities said on Monday that five British nationals were among 13 bodies recovered from the fire zone. Three Belgians, one French national and one Spanish citizen have also been identified – all adults. Among the dead were a married couple, the husband Spanish and the wife British, and a British couple.

The June heatwaves that hit Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists has said.

Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather across the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters such as heatwaves and wildfires.

Life in a heat dome: The American West is figuring out how to keep cool

Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change (Credit: Getty Images)

 by Lucy Sherriff

 

From planting trees to painting streets white, US cities are fighting extreme heat.

In 2013, Los Angeles became the first large city to pass a law requiring all new homes to have a cool roof. Since then, the city – where the number of days at 35C (95F) is expected to soar by 2050 – has rolled out numerous other keep-cool initiatives, including painting pavements white and expanding its Green Standards Building Code to include cool roofs on non-residential buildings and retrofits.

Despite the mitigation efforts, however, the population is still suffering from issues linked to excess heat. A study found the number of extreme heat-related emergency calls in Los Angeles between 2018 and 2022 directly correlated with the number of days that were 32C (90F) and above.

"The opportunities for heat mitigation in the US are huge," says Steffen Lehmann, director of the University of Nevada's Urban Futures Lab. "The knowledge is there, but the things that need to be done are not being done. It is extremely frustrating."

This year, extreme heat warnings are in place across much of the western US from 11 to 13 July, as a heat dome brings dangerously hot temperatures of 100-106F (38-41C). The extreme conditions come after a heat dome led to 4 July celebrations being cancelled in parts of the eastern US due to extreme heat.

 This latest heatwave is making it even more vital for cities to ready themselves for hot weather. But some experts say that cities are inadequately prepared – even though the science behind how to cool cities down is well known.

41 million Americans live in areas that experience extreme urban heat island temperatures (Credit: Getty Images)

Around 80% of America's population lives in urban areas – where the heat island effect can drastically worsen the impact of hot weather. Urban heat islands are densely populated, built up areas with few trees and large areas of dark concrete and asphalt that absorb the sun's energy. As the sun goes down, the manmade materials release the stored heat – ensuring that the city stays hot, even at night. Urban heat island temperatures can be up to 11C (20F) hotter than less populated areas.

Vulnerable communities, such as the elderly, children, and low-income populations, are disproportionately impacted by the heat – with hotter temperatures even taking a toll on newborn babies.

As US cities continue to experience record-breaking, life-threatening triple-digit days, researchers like Lehmann say many areas are still underprepared. In 2022, a group of scientists examined 175 municipal city plans from the 50 most populous cities in the US. Although the majority mentioned heat, "few included" strategies to address it, the report found.

 "If cities are not painting a complete picture of heat — how chronic it is, and its disparate impacts on the ground — we're not going to be able to fully protect residents, and we could end up exacerbating existing social and environmental injustices," says co-author Emma French, a doctoral student in urban planning at University College of Los Angeles.

 

Another study found 41 million people live in areas with extreme urban heat island temperatures. The report, by Climate Central, found 14 cities had an extreme contrast between temperatures in urban areas versus surrounding less-developed areas. These included Albuquerque, Bakersfield, Fresno and Las Vegas.

The problem is "too much talking and not enough action", Lehmann says. "It's extremely difficult to effect change." It is hard to hold one city up as a model case study when it comes to heat mitigation, Lehmann continues, because there's nowhere in the US doing it well.

"But", he continues, "I am optimistic. Because there are things cities can do to cool down. And I do think there is a mindset-change happening."

 

Green over grey

Tree-planting is widely known to lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade, and cooling by evaporation and transpiration. Research has shown that urban forests have temperatures that are on average 1.6C (2.9F) lower than unforested urban areas.

Planting shrubs on roofs can help reduce the overall surface temperature of the surface (Credit: Getty Images)

As a result, cities across the US have rolled out their own greening initiatives. Austin, Texas, requires 50% tree canopy coverage in the city by 2050. In Phoenix, Arizona – a place with the reputation for being the hottest city in the US – a tree-planting drive is bringing shade to some of the city's warmest neighbourhoods. More than $1.4m (£1m) has been approved to plant up to 1,800 trees across the city to provide cool corridors.

In Tuscon, Arizona, drought makes tree-planting even harder in low-income neighbourhoods, where residents often can't afford to plant or maintain trees in their gardens. The city runs a rebate programme to reimburse residents up to $2,000 (£1,563) for installing rainwater collection systems, where the water could be used for trees and green areas. This includes zero-interest loans and grants for economically challenged communities, as well as providing workshops in Spanish.

 

Plants are not just being planted on the ground, though, but also on roofs. In 2017, San Francisco mandated that at least 15% surface area of roofs on new buildings bigger than 2,000 sq ft (1,858 metres) must be covered by either solar panels or vegetation. A number of large buildings in the city have already installed green roofs, which not only remove heat from the air through evapotranspiration, but reduce surface temperatures of the roof surface. On hot summer days, a green roof's temperature can be cooler than the surrounding air, whereas a conventional rooftop can be over 40C (72F) warmer.

Paint it white

A recent study found that a clean white roof that reflects 80% of sunlight will stay about 31C (56F) cooler on a summer afternoon.

The idea isn't new – cities in North Africa and southern Europe have been doing this for centuries. Lehmann helped spearhead painting white roofs in Australia back in 2012, where community projects have been found to cool the insides of buildings by up to 2.5C (4.5F). Now, he says, the movement is finally making its way over to the US.

 

The city of New York has recently coated more than 10 million sq ft (930,000 sq metres) of rooftops white, which is reducing internal building temperatures by 30%. California, meanwhile, has updated building codes to promote cool roofs, which are seen as an important way to save energy.

Scientists around the world have been developing cool paint coatings for pavements, roofs and walls that contain special additives to reflect the sun's heat. White paint can reflect sunlight, but paint coating contains high concentrations of pigments which means the paint also has water-resistant and reflective properties. The coatings have been proven to help pedestrians feel 1.5C (2.7F) cooler.

The paint reduces surface heat absorption, meaning that at night, the lighter surfaces are not releasing heat they would have stored during the day.  Los Angeles has been trialling cool paint, but there are drawbacks; the paint the city is using costs $40,000 per mile (£31,268) and lasts seven years. Also, as Lehmann points out, "white roads don't stay very white for long".

Cooling a city down at night is extremely important because it gives residents a chance to cool down too – staying hot at night can lead to serious health problems. Night time is also when the urban heat island effect can be at its most severe.

For centuries, white paint has been used to cool urban areas (Credit: Getty Images)

Painting pavements with cool coatings is being trialled at various locations in the country. In 2020, a study in Phoenix found coating pavements with cool paint lowered the surface temperature of the streets. After the study's findings, the city made it a permanent programme.

But it's a complicated solution; reports also show white pavements can actually make people feel hotter, as the sunlight is reflected off the white ground, and is instead absorbed by the people walking on it. And although the surface temperature of the pavement in Phoenix was 5.5C (10F) cooler, the air temperature 6ft (1.8 metre) away from the pavement measured just 0.16C (0.3F) cooler.

 

Community participation

Data-gathering plays an important role in planning for the future when it comes to heat.

 

In 2022, 60 volunteers measured the morning, afternoon and evening temperatures across Clark County, where Las Vegas sits, as part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded heat mapping study. The map produced from that data shows that elevated temperatures are worst in North Las Vegas, East Las Vegas and downtown, which can get up to 6C (11F) hotter than other parts of the city. The county is now using the data to inform heat mitigation policies which include community cooling centres and tree-planting initiatives.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the city worked with local volunteers to map temperature and humidity by handing out specially-designed thermal sensors. Residents drove or bicycled around prescribed routes twice daily to record more than 67,000 temperature points. The maps showed differences of up to almost 9.4C (17F) in different portions of the city, with hottest temperatures in downtown and neighbourhoods adjacent to highways. Again, the neighbourhoods worst affected were low-income communities. The city then teamed up with Nasa to take satellite images, which were overlaid with social vulnerability data to target frontline communities.

 

The city had never done something like this before, and the data allowed the city government to plan for heat accordingly, according to who needed help the most. "It led to two important strategies we're implementing right now," says Albuquerque's sustainability officer Ann Simon. One is a community energy-efficiency programme, where low-income families are helped to maximise their energy efficiency in their home and lower their energy bills by around £233 ($300) a year. To date, the city has made improvements in 104 homes.

"We're a small programme but we did just receive a large $2 million grant to help more families so we can help the number of families we serve by sixfold," says Simon.

 

Nasa will also be imaging the neighbourhoods again, which Simon hopes will inform future planning.

 

Planning for the future

Planning is also crucial for cities like Las Vegas, which is the second fastest-warming city in the US behind Reno, Nevada, and where temperatures this June hit around 46.1C (115F).

"Just a couple of years ago, very few cities were talking about preparing for rising temperatures, so it's an important step that heat is becoming a larger part of the conversation," says V. Kelly Turner, professor of urban planning and co-director of the University of California's Los Angeles Luskin Centre for Innovation.

 

Lehmann been working with Las Vegas city officials for the past six years developing a master plan for how to cool the city by 2050. In 2021, the city's Clark County released its 2050 Master Plan, which features plans to mitigate heat. Planting low maintenance and drought-tolerant plants to provide shade, reducing hardscaped areas, and designing buildings that provide shade are just some of the policies laid out. "But I believe we'll see change," says Lehmann, "now that the city wants it."

Las Vegas has already started on other initiatives, such as opening public cooling stations for the homeless during heatwaves, and beginning a project to plant 60,000 trees by 2050 to provide shade. At the parking lot of a large basketball stadium, 1,000 parking spaces are being removed in order to plant 1,000 trees. It's a controversial move though, says Lehmann, in a city that is so car-dependent. The city is also working with engineers at the University of Vegas to develop a reflective roof coating for the hundreds of casinos and hotels in Las Vegas – but its application will be voluntary, Lehmann notes.

There is certainly a plethora of science and research on how cities can cool down. However, as with most things, the science is complex; trees can make the air feel more humid­ ­– which can also lead to dangerous health impacts – and white paint on pavements can still leave streets feeling hot.

 

As always, it comes down to implementing a multitude of solutions, and thinking outside the box. Despite his frustrations, Lehmann remains positive. "As architects, our job is to reimagine the future," he says. "I don't need to see what Las Vegas looks like now, I need to see what it looks like in 20 years time."

--

This story was originally published on 13 June 2024, and updated with details of another heat dome over the western US on 10 July 2026.  

 

Erosão amplia engorda de faixa de areia em praia do litoral de SC; veja onde é: Balneário Piçarras aumentou o alargamento da orla em mais de 430 metros; tendência é de que obras desse tipo durem menos por causa do crescimento acelerado do nível do mar

 

Balneário Piçarras - SC - Brazil - Operação da draga na megaobra de alargamento da Praia Central de Balneário Piçarras. Foto: José Santos/Prefeitura de Balneário Piçarras

by  Por William Canan

Alargamento da faixa de areia em Balneário Piçarras é ampliado

Esta é a quarta vez em 27 anos que o município em Santa Catarina realiza uma obra do tipo para combater a erosão costeira. Crédito: Prefeitura de Balneário Piçarras

 

Após estudos realizados pelo Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Hidroviárias (INPH), o alargamento da faixa de areia em Balneário Piçarras, litoral norte de Santa Catarina, teve de ser ampliado. O trecho inicial, de 2 quilômetros de extensão, foi aumentado em mais 430 metros. Esta é a quarta vez em 27 anos que o município faz uma obra do tipo para combater a erosão costeira. A primeira intervenção em Piçarras foi feita em 1998, refeita 10 anos depois, em 2008, e novamente em 2012.

A obra atual, iniciada em janeiro, teve um investimento superior a R$ 40 milhões e, com o mudança do projeto original, foram gastos mais R$ 9,57 milhões após o INPH identificar a necessidade de ampliar os trabalhos no sentido norte, após o molhe da Avenida Getúlio Vargas, onde terminava o projeto original. A conclusão dos trabalhos ocorreu na primeira quinzena de abril.

 

O alargamento da faixa de areia é uma das formas de combater a erosão costeira. Além de Piçarras, Balneário Camboriú e Florianópolis são outras cidades catarinenses que já fizeram intervenções desse tipo. A tendência, no entanto, é de que essas obras durem menos, por causa do aumento acelerado do nível do mar.

“Esse problema afeta o litoral, resultando no avanço do mar e recuo da linha de costa”, diz Janete Josina de Abreu, professora da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) e coordenadora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desastres Naturais do Departamento de Geociências da instituição.

 Janete explica que em praias arenosas, como é o caso de Balneário Piçarras, o fenômeno acontece quando o litoral perde mais sedimentos do que recebe de volta, o que pode levar ao desaparecimento completo da faixa de areia.

 

Onde fica

Cidade, localizada no litoral de Santa Catarina, está a 118 quilômetros de Florianópolis

 

  A melhor forma de prevenir o problema é evitar a ação humana na linha costeira. Mas em casos onde a erosão já começou, a maneira mais eficaz é utilizar técnicas inspiradas na natureza, como o próprio alargamento da faixa de areia, que repõe os sedimentos levados pelo mar. “São alternativas mais adequadas e menos impactantes, mas é importante ressaltar que frequentemente as obras de proteção são paliativas e não definitivas”, afirma a professora.

 O processo de alargamento da faixa de areia utiliza grandes barcos conhecidos como dragas, que retiram areia do fundo do mar e recolocam em um aterro na orla da praia. Em Balneário Piçarras, a areia utilizada no alargamento foi retirada de uma jazida localizada a cerca de 10,5 quilômetros da Praia Central, nas proximidades da Ponta da Vigia, no município de Penha. Ao todo, foram mais de 493 mil m³ de areia depositados na orla.

O alargamento da faixa de areia é uma das formas de combater a erosão costeira. Foto: José Santos/Prefeitura de Balneário Piçarras

 

Mesmo com os benefícios da obra, existem impactos trazidos pela recuperação costeira. Balneário Piçarras é reconhecida internacionalmente com o Selo Bandeira Azul, certificado que garante a qualidade da água em praias de todo o mundo. Durante o alargamento da faixa de areia, o município removeu as bandeiras no trecho afetado.

Em nota, a prefeitura explicou que “se trata de uma ação preventiva e responsável, com a retirada das bandeiras ocorrendo conforme o andamento das obras, uma vez que esse tipo de intervenção pode provocar alterações temporárias no ambiente de praia”.

 

Ainda que sem os indicadores, a análise de qualidade da água é feita semanalmente, e não houve, desde o início das obras, grandes alterações. A administração municipal destaca que “não houve descumprimento dos critérios do programa, e a medida reforça o compromisso do município com a transparência e com a manutenção dos padrões de qualidade exigidos pelo Programa Bandeira Azul”.

Com o fim da obra, o município prepara a documentação necessária para retomar o selo na temporada de verão 2026/2027.

‘Like a sauna’: London tube travellers swelter in temperatures higher than legal limit for cattle. The tube cannot easily be adapted to cope with heatwaves, making conditions almost unbearable

 

In the UK, it is illegal to transport cattle above 30C, but the mercury hit 32C on the train and 34C on the Victoria Line platform at Finsbury Park. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

by  Rosie Peters-McDonald

 

As the escalator descends below ground at King’s Cross St Pancras station in London, the shift from what was already a hot station entrance to the furnace-like subterranean depths is perceptible.

On the tube it’s worse: a man leans back in his seat, eyes closed, sweltering; people hold electric fans an inch away from their faces. London commuters are known for their stoicism and the heat appears to be another tribulation to accept. They will need to: heatwaves in the capital are becoming routine.

“We’re quite lucky that this platform is almost empty, because when the platform gets packed it’s [like a] sauna,” Anna, a passenger at Oxford Circus, says. “When it’s peak hours, it’s quite difficult.”

The tube infrastructure is difficult to adapt because of its age and the surrounding clay. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

 

Anna says she usually adapts well to hot temperatures, but even she finds the heat on the platform hard to bear. Craig, another passenger, says he has to travel in gym clothes and change into his work clothes at the office because of the heat on the tube.

London’s underground isn’t adapted for the 30C+ heatwaves that have hit the city over the last few summers. Lines such as the Victoria line – the deepest on the network – and the Bakerloo line – which TfL says has some of the oldest trains in passenger use anywhere in the country – are particularly bad when it comes to withstanding the heat.

A traveller tries to keep cool with a handheld fan. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Sharmin, a barista at the Pret a Manger stationed by the barriers at King’s Cross St Pancras, says she has seen people faint in and around the station. She finds the heat so oppressive that she has asked to go home early during some of her shifts this week. She wonders why there are no coolers or industrial fans set up near Pret or the barriers. “I’ve felt like I was going to faint,” she says.

A quick glance at the thermometer I’m carrying on this unscientific investigation shows that the station is about 30C. On the platform and tube it crawls up to 32C, and then at the Victoria line platform at Finsbury Park it hits 34C. In the UK, it is illegal to transport cattle above 30C; transporting people at 34C, though, might be becoming the norm.

Anna, pictured at Oxford Circus, says the platform becomes like a ‘sauna’ during peak hours. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
 

 It’s ten degrees higher underground than it is outside at this point, according to my iPhone’s built-in weather app. Between 8am and 9am the thermometer shows readings of 34C on the Victoria line platforms at Finsbury Park, on the Victoria and Bakerloo line platforms at Victoria, and on the northbound Bakerloo line platform at Oxford Circus.

 Tube tunnels are ‘basically radiators’, taking on the heat of the clay and concrete around them. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

 

Asher Minns, executive director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, a partnership across several UK universities, says that tube tunnels are “basically radiators”, taking on the heat of the clay and concrete around them. The carriages, platforms and surrounding tunnels are also warmed by the hundreds of kilowatts of heat the trains produce while breaking. And the warmer it is outside, the worse it gets underground.

But Minns adds that the infrastructure is difficult to adapt because of its age and the surrounding clay. It will likely be years before the network is better suited to dealing with the heat, so for now he says the focus needs to be reducing risks to passengers.

“It can’t go on like this, and it’s not going to get any better,” he says. “[The underground] absolutely has to adapt to the impacts of climate change, but right now I think [the focus] has to be looking after passengers.”

Craig has to travel in gym clothes and change into his work clothes at the office because of the heat on the tube. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

He suggests limiting the number of passengers allowed to travel when the temperature is above a certain limit, or reducing the number of tubes in service during heatwaves.

Nick Dent, TfL’s director of customer operations, said TfL was continuing to invest in making the network more resilient and comfortable as hotter summers become more common, as well as introducing new air-conditioned trains on the Piccadilly line and DLR.

Dent added that the “short-term and stop-start nature of funding over recent years has meant that TfL has had to carefully prioritise its investment and – while remaining open to measures that will help manage the impact of increasing temperatures due to climate change – has focused on programmes that will see the biggest benefits to customers”.

UK swelters in third heatwave of the year as western Europe counts cost of hottest-ever June. Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest June’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent

People shield themselves from the sun at the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace in London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Sopa Images/Shutterstock

 

by  Pippa Neill and Ajit Niranjan

The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat.

Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record, scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could cause “mass-mortality events” for some species.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday expanded amber heat health alerts to cover all regions of England except the north-east, meaning significant impacts are likely across health and social care services owing to the high temperatures.

 

The UK Met Office said high temperatures would remain through much of next week, which could make the heatwave one of the longest lasting since the 1976 heatwave that killed 250 people. On Thursday temperatures surpassed 35C (95F) in Surrey, falling short of the provisional high of 37.7C recorded at Lingwood, Strumpshaw Hill, in Norfolk on 26 June.

The Met Office said Thursday was the eighth day this year where temperatures had surpassed 34C, breaking the previous records from 2020 and 1976 by one day.

Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said the climate crisis was making every heatwave hotter, with events such as this month’s heatwave more likely to occur.

“The heat we have seen this summer is only possible because of the 1.4C of climate change we have to date, due to the burning of fossil fuels,” she said.

Otto said it was misleading to use the term “new normal” when describing this year’s scorching summer heat. “The climate we have today is not stable and continues to warm as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels. As a result, what is ‘normal’ keeps shifting and we’re likely to see much hotter heatwaves like this one in the years to come.”

 Many countries across Europe are still reckoning with the fallout from the last heatwave. On Thursday, Belgium’s public science institute said its June heat was “exceptionally deadly”, with 1,747 excess deaths, while the Robert Koch Institute reported 5,120 heat-related deaths in Germany this summer. Early academic estimates suggest the death toll across the continent could be higher than 20,000.

A firefighter sprays water on spectators watching the sixth stage of the Tour de France between Pau and Gavarnie-Gèdre in the French Pyrenees. Photograph: Loïc Venance/AFP/Getty Images

In France, where a nuclear reactor reportedly shut down in high heat on Thursday, scientists said the transformation of homes from “thermal kettles” into decent housing was a public health imperative.

France’s high council on climate, an independent body responsible for evaluating government climate action, urged policymakers to improve housing stock and make the creation of shaded green spaces an integral part of urban regeneration. In hospitals, care homes and schools, it recommended installing shutters, shade structures, ceiling fans, cooling systems, and fixed air-conditioning units.

The annual report, which is in its eighth edition, found France was not ready for the dangerous consequences of climate breakdown and said current policies were insufficient to avoid a sharp increase in risk.

A boy rests inside the Roman theatre in Arles, France. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

The scientists lamented the slowdown in climate action and called for a consolidated plan to phase out fossil fuels. “The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of the transition,” the authors wrote, “which makes unilateral decarbonisation by major economies a rational choice that brings considerable welfare gains for societies”.

The NHS in England has said it is facing a “summer onslaught”, with the heatwave and the World Cup to blame. Average A&E attendances exceeded 80,000 for the first time ever in June, a new daily attendance record.

The NHS national medical director, Prof Frankie Swords, said the figures showed that summer was putting the NHS under just as much pressure as winter. South Central ambulance service NHS foundation trust said during the June heatwave there was a 118% increase in the number of times 999 emergency call takers directed members of the public to collect a nearby defibrillator for someone in suspected cardiac arrest.

More than 1,000 schools across the UK were either closed or partially closed during the June heatwave, and some schools have taken similar measures this week as they struggled to cope in poorly insulated buildings.

 

Water companies have reported increased demand, with a hosepipe ban already in force for South East Water customers in parts of Kent. Hosepipe restrictions are also being introduced for about 1 million Southern Water customers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Friday.

Supermarkets across the UK have struggled to keep their fridge and freezer units running in the extreme heat, with many shoppers finding empty shelves at their local store and a hastily erected sign apologising for the inconvenience.

Rupert Ashby, the chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said the trade association heard from a number of members who had encountered problems, and shops with older fridge-freezer units were being worst affected.

In older models, the refrigeration cycle components that pump out hot air are typically stored outside the building and are designed to work in ambient temperature. In an extreme heat event they do not work as efficiently, as they cannot pump the heat away.

 

Signs on blinds covering fridges in the chilled food aisle of a Sainsbury’s supermarket in England. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

 “These systems just weren’t designed to deal with this type of temperature because, historically, we rarely had it,” Ashby said. “But a major supermarket chain is probably looking at hundreds of millions of pounds to replace all its older units because they have so many.”

Phil Pluck, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, said 50% of cold warehouses in the UK were more than 20 years old with old refrigeration systems, and the hot weather had massively increased energy usage and pressure on the system.

“As an industry, we are finding ourselves under more and more pressure,” he said. “I think we’ve got to admit that our climate is now clearly in crisis, and one of the things that will have to change will be our access to food via retail outlets. It will look different.”

He said open fridge-freezers in supermarkets would become less common, and standard practice would shift to using Perspex doors to keep heat out. Some supermarkets have installed pull-down blinds on their fridge units to help keep food cool.

 Additional reporting Jessica Murray

UK waters hit with extreme heatwave as global sea temperatures reach record levels. Experts warn that some marine species are at risk of ‘mass mortality events’ in ever-warming oceans

 

The archipelago of St Kilda. Marine temperatures in UK seas have been on average 2C higher than usual, with some areas 4-5C warmer. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

by  Pippa Neill

 

UK waters are being hit with an “extreme” marine heatwave, the Met Office has said, as scientists warn that high ocean temperatures globally could result in “mass-mortality events” for some species.

The forecasters said these elevated temperatures have developed rapidly because of last month’s heat dome, during which most of Europe sweltered in its worst ever heatwave that scientists said would have been impossible without the climate crisis.

The third heatwave of the summer has arrived in the UK this week, with temperatures on track to exceed 30C for up to 10 consecutive days. Dr Ségolène Berthou, an air-sea interaction specialist at the Met Office, said these atmospheric conditions drive the marine heatwave.

“The ocean didn’t have enough time to cool down between the two land heatwaves,” she said.

 

Oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess energy in the Earth system, which is primarily caused by burning fossil fuels.

Berthou said this is the third and most intense marine heatwave the UK has seen this year, with temperatures on average 2C warmer than usual and with some locations reaching “severe” conditions where the water temperature is 4-5C warmer than usual. “There’s no sign of an end to it,” Berthou added.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Copernicus Marine Service have confirmed that global sea surface temperatures have surpassed the previous records for this time of year, which were set in 2023 and 2024. This had been anticipated to follow the development of El Niño conditions, which scientists forecast to be the strongest in decades

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, speaks at a conference on the future of AI in Geneva. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the world must treat the arrival of El Niño conditions as the “urgent climate warning it is”.

He said: “The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis: ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all.”

 

Prof John Pinnegar, principal scientist and lead adviser at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, said these extreme marine heatwave conditions can result in “mass-mortality events” for some marine species and alter the distribution of commercially important fish and shellfish.

He said: “Prolonged periods of elevated sea water temperatures can also encourage new species to visit UK waters, establish new populations, potentially shaking up UK ecosystems.”

Record numbers of octopuses were found off the south-west coast of England last year, transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem. A record 100 tonnes of octopus was sold in one day at Brixham market last month.

Alemanha teve 5.655 mortes a mais durante onda de calor em junho

 

Termômetros passaram dos 40ºC na Alemanha durante a onda de calor no final de junho

Termômetro marca 41°C em Berlim, na Alemanha, no dia 27 de junho deste ano - Axel Schmidt/Reuters 

País superou marcas históricas de temperatura por três dias seguidos

Em dias quentes, chegou-se a registrar o asfalto derretido perto de trilhos de bonde

Redação DW

 País registrou 23,6 mil óbitos de 22 a 28 de junho, quando recordes de temperatura foram quebrados, contra uma média de 18,1 mil no mesmo período de 2022 a 2025. 

A Alemanha registrou 5.655 mil mortes a mais que o esperado na penúltima semana de junho, quando o país foi varrido por uma onda de calor extremo que quebrou recordes históricos de temperatura, informou o Escritório Federal de Estatísticas.

Foram 23.665 mil óbitos de 22 a 28 de junho, contra uma média de 18.179 no mesmo período dos quatro anos anteriores. Os dados são preliminares, mas, como apontou o portal n-tv, há 26 anos não morriam tantas pessoas em uma única semana de verão.

Naquela semana, o país superou marcas históricas de calor por três dias seguidos. A pior marca, 41,7ºC medidos em 28 de junho, foi registrada em Coschen, em Brandemburgo, no leste do país. Na virada de 26 para 27, o país teve sua noite mais quente, com sufocantes 29,4ºC medidos em Kubschütz, na Saxônia, também no leste do país.

Na mesma época, o calor extremo produziu cenas insólitas na Alemanha, como o asfalto derretido no entorno dos trilhos de bonde em Leipzig, no estado da Saxônia, e autoestradas "estouradas" pelo país.

Calor levou à interrupção do serviço de bondes em Leipzig

Uma semana antes, de 15 a 21 de junho, as autoridades alemãs contabilizaram 18.427 mortos, muito próximo da média dos quatro anos anteriores para o mesmo período.

Onda de calor castigou boa parte da Europa

Outros países europeus também foram duramente afetados pelo calor no final de junho.

 

Dados preliminares apontam mais de 4,7 mil mortes adicionais para o período na França, Holanda, Bélgica e Espanha, com a expectativa que o número aumente ainda mais, conforme outros países ainda atualizam seus balanços.

Embora o alto número de mortes esteja muito provavelmente relacionado ao clima extremo, não se pode falar automaticamente em mortes por calor. Esses casos são difíceis de determinar, principalmente quando se trata de idosos e pessoas com doenças preexistentes.

"Que as altas temperaturas têm influência é incontestável — mas em que medida muitas vezes não está claro", disse o diretor médico do serviço de emergência da cidade de Colônia, Alexander Lechleuthner, citado pela revista alemã Der Spiegel.

A crise climática tem tornado ondas de calor mais intensas e frequentes. Por isso, alguns especialistas apontam que as altas temperaturas serão cada vez mais consideradas um fator de risco à saúde.

"Com certeza temos mais mortes associadas ao calor do que ao trânsito", afirmou Uwe Janssens, diretor da Associação Interdisciplinar Alemã de Cuidados Intensivos e Medicina de Emergência (DIVI), à Spiegel.

Ao portal t-online, Sebastian Klüsener, diretor de pesquisa do Instituto Federal de Pesquisa sobre População, disse que se o número de mortos nas próximas semanas se mantiver nos níveis esperados em vez de diminuir, é sinal de que o calor provavelmente não só "antecipou" a morte de quem já tinha baixa expectativa de vida, mas também precipitou a morte de pessoas consideradas mais saudáveis.