Unrelenting heat is blanketing swathes of southern and eastern Europe, with dozens of cities on red alert as scorching temperatures fuel wildfires, strain power grids, and make daily life unbearable.
Greece, which recorded its earliest-ever heat wave this summer, withered through its 11th-straight day above 40˚C on Thursday. 40 new blazes were recorded in the past 24 hours—firefighters were stretched to the limit.
“We’re worried,” veteran firefighter Konstantinos Goularas told AFP in Athens as a small group of comrades rallied outside parliament for more resources.
“We don’t have enough firefighters for the summer.”
Nights in the capital Athens have hit 30˚C as heat rolls unbroken from one day to the next.
In Italy, zoo keepers gave animals ice blocks to ward off heat stroke as temperatures soared, while 14 cities including Florence, Palermo and Bologna were placed on red alert.
Swarms of locusts thriving in the hot conditions have invaded fields and orchards in the eastern region of Emilia Romagna.
“The high temperatures and the lack of rain have favored the massive proliferation of one of the insects most feared by farmers,” said Italy’s main agricultural lobby Coldiretti.
Two firefighters died on Wednesday battling a blaze near the southern Italian city of Matera, while a separate fire near Rome shrouded the capital in a choking yellow haze.
In Hungary, which has been under a maximum heat warning since July 7, searing temperatures have warped an airport runway while the state-run train operator urged passengers to take air-conditioned buses instead of its outdated rail cars.
Croatia and Serbia this week consumed a record amount of electricity as residents switched on air conditioners to beat the heat.
In Romania, gripped by a heat wave since Saturday, evening temperature records have tumbled as blistering daytime highs have carried into long, suffocating nights.
The past 13 months have been the hottest ever recorded, and heat waves have already this year hit North America, Mexico, India and Thailand, to name a few.
But this was largely felt in southeast regions and Turkey, with western Europe experiencing a slow start to summer, with near or below average temperatures for June.
Spain declared its first heat wave of the year on Thursday with temperatures forecast to hit 44˚C in some southern areas in coming days, accompanied by hot and uncomfortable nights.
Hans-Martin Fussel, from the European Environment Agency, said western Europe was often better prepared for heat waves than southern or eastern regions where the threat was much greater.