Forest fires fanned by high winds and hot, dry weather damaged some holiday homes in Turkey as a lingering heatwave covering much of Europe led authorities to raise warnings and tourists to find ways to beat the heat.
A heat dome hovered over France, Portugal and Spain to Turkey on Monday, while data from European forecasters suggested other countries were set to broil further in the coming days.
Heat warnings were issued for parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany with new highs expected on Wednesday before rain is forecast to bring respite to some areas later this week.
“Extreme heat is no longer a rare event — it has become the new normal,” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres tweeted from Seville, Spain, where temperatures hit 42C on Monday.
Reiterating his frequent calls for action to fight climate change, Mr Guterres added: “The planet is getting hotter and more dangerous — no country is immune.”
In Portugal — his home country — a reading of 46.6C was registered in Mora, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Lisbon.
Weather officials were working to confirm whether that marked a new record for June.
Portuguese authorities issued a red heat warning on Monday for seven of 18 districts as temperatures were forecast to hit 43C.
The first heat wave of the year has gripped Spain since the weekend and no relief is expected until Thursday, the national weather service said on Monday.
The country appeared to hit a new high for June on Saturday when 46C was recorded in the southern province of Huelva, while Sunday’s national average of 28C set a record for a high temperature for June 29 since records were started in 1950.
– Forest fires
In France, which was almost entirely sweltering in the heatwave on Monday, and where air conditioning remains relatively rare, local and national authorities were taking extra effort to care for homeless and elderly people and people working outside.
Some tourists were putting off plans for some rigorous outdoor activities.
“We were going to do a bike tour today, but we decided because it was going be so warm not to do the bike tour,” said Andrea Tyson, 46, who was visiting Paris from New Philadelphia, Ohio, on Sunday.
Misting stations doused passers-by along the River Seine in the French capital.
France’s first significant forest fires of the season consumed 400 hectares (988 acres) of woods on Sunday and Monday in the Aude region in the south.
Water-dumping planes and some 300 firefighters were mobilised, the regional emergency service said. Tourists were evacuated from one campground in the area.
In Turkey, forest fires fanned by strong winds damaged some holiday homes in Izmir’s Doganbey region and forced the temporary closure of the airport in Izmir, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Authorities evacuated four villages as a precaution, the Forestry Ministry said.
Firefighters were also battling a blaze that broke out on Monday near residential areas in Hatay province, near Turkey’s border with Syria, that prompted the evacuation of 1,500 people.
In Italy, the Health Ministry put 21 cities under its level three “red” alert, which indicates “emergency conditions with possible negative effects” on healthy, active people as well as at-risk old people, children and chronically ill people.
Regional governments in north-western Liguria and southern Sicily put restrictions on outdoor work, such as construction and agricultural labour, during the peak heat hours.
The mercury was rising further north, too.
– ‘People who need protection’
In southern Germany, temperatures of up to 35C were expected on Monday, and they were forecast to creep higher until midweek – going as high as 39C on Wednesday.
Some German towns and regions imposed limits on how much water can be taken from rivers and lakes.
At the Berlin zoo, elephants were showered with water and bears treated with blocks of ice containing fruit.
