Western Europe will be hit by another heat wave this week. According to forecasts by the Météo-France weather service, up to 38 degrees should be reached locally on Tuesday. In the UK, meteorologists are predicting unusually high levels above 35 degrees in parts of the country.
British authorities on Monday issued a warning of extreme heat with “major impacts” on people’s lives. In large parts of England and Wales, the temperature should therefore exceed 30 degrees. The heat is forecast to last for days, with 33 degrees in southern England and central Wales on Tuesday.
High temperatures could continue to rise into early next week – and even surpass 35 degrees on Sunday in the south-east of England, according to UK Weather Service deputy chief Rebekah Sherwin.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Britain is 38.7 degrees, recorded on July 25, 2019 in the botanical gardens in the eastern English city of Cambridge. According to Sherwin, there is a “slight chance” that this all-time record will be broken during the upcoming heatwave.
Heat wave spreads
In France, meanwhile, another heat wave started on Monday. Temperatures above 30 degrees were measured in large parts of the country, and 36 to 38 degrees could be reached in the south-west of the country and in the Rhône Valley, according to Météo-France forecasts on Tuesday.
The heat wave is expected to spread to central France and the east and north of the country, with its peak expected towards the end of the week. An unusually early heat wave with temperatures sometimes exceeding 40 degrees reached France in June.
According to Sébastien Léas from Météo-France, the service expects this time to last eight to ten days. So far, however, it is still unclear whether the heat wave will reach comparable proportions as in the hot summer of 2003, which killed around 15,000 people in France alone. British and French meteorologists see a connection between more frequent heat waves and global warming.
40 degrees in Austria? “Very unlikely”
For Austria, the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) announced summer temperatures from Wednesday. It should be up to 33 degrees hot on Thursday. “Because Upper Austria is on the border between a large high and a low pressure area, extreme values like in France and Spain are very unlikely for us. Our models do not currently indicate this,” says meteorologist Claudia Riedl in the OÖN interview. >> To the weather forecast for Upper Austria
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Source: Nachrichten
