Extreme heat waves spark climate emergencies worldwide
According to Iran's national meteorological service, the country is sweltering through its hottest week of the year, with temperatures hitting above 50 degrees Celsius. In Tehran, the temperatures shot up to 40 degrees on Sunday.
As the searing heatwaves persisted, Tehran's water authority had urged residents to cut down water consumption by at least 20 per cent, warning that reservoirs at the dams supplying water to the capital have sunk to "their lowest levels in a century."
Some 3,500 km west of Tehran, the Greek capital of Athens is enduring its first prolonged heatwave of this summer as well.
Hot air masses sweeping in from North Africa arrived earlier than usual and have formed a heat dome over Greece and the Balkans, pushing temperatures up to 10 degrees above the seasonal norm, said its National Observatory.
With average highs forecast to reach 38 degrees this week and peak at 44 degrees in some areas. The National Herald, a Greek daily, described conditions as "hotter than hell."
Such aridity, combined with gale-force winds, has put Greece under severe wildfire outbreaks.
Firefighters on Thursday grappled with a blaze on the island of Crete that burned through forests and olive groves, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 people.
In addition, a new outbreak of fire near Athens edged dangerously close to residential areas.
Elsewhere, Türkiye recorded 761 wildfires in the 10 days following June 26. The fires flaring in and around the western Izmir Province have claimed the lives of an elderly man and a forest department worker.
Across Europe, at least eight heat-related deaths have been reported in several countries, including Spain and Italy, as the continent baked in the heatwave.
"We are currently under the influence of a strong high-pressure system; this is trapping hot air from northern Africa over the region. And as we can see, it's having a pretty big impact on what we are experiencing now," Clare Nullis, a World Meteorological Organisation spokesperson, said earlier.
She noted that humans will have to learn to live with more frequent and intense heat waves as a result of climate change.
The EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a recent article that "damage to the built environment from extreme weather events is expected to increase tenfold by the end of the century due to climate change alone."
Such widespread climate impacts highlight the importance of building greater resilience, it noted, calling for physical and technological measures such as water recycling, separation of rain and greywater, climate-resilient building design, risk mapping, and early warning systems.
"Adaptation is required across all sectors and governance levels, and actions must address both current climate impacts and steps to protect against future risks," it said. -Xinhua
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Record heat in China strains power grid, stirs health fears
A child holding a portable fan amid a yellow alert for heat, in Shanghai. - Reuters BEIJING: China warned on Wednesday (July 23) against the risk of power supply disruptions as people struggled to keep cool in record heat baking large swathes of the country, which also spurred warnings to the elderly to guard against heat stroke. Power supply suffers while demand surges, exceeding 1.5 billion kilowatts for the first time last week, energy officials said, in a third new record for China this month, when its first nationwide alert on heat-related health risks also went out. "High-temperature weather will... have an impact on power generation and supply," weather official Chen Hui told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that it would hit hydropower output and reduce the efficiency of photovoltaic generation. Authorities will send alerts to notify electricity suppliers if tactics such as peak-shaving and cross-regional dispatching of power are called for, added Chen, an official of the China Meteorological Administration. Since mid-March, the number of days when temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or more is the highest on record, said Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Climate Centre. Authorities asked the elderly to stay indoors unless necessary, while urging outdoor workers to scale down activity on such "sauna days". Temperatures have hit new highs since mid-March in the central provinces of Henan and Hubei, Shandong in the east, Sichuan in the southwest, and northwestern Shaanxi and Xinjiang, pushing the national average to the second highest on record. During the last two weeks, 152 national weather observatories tracked temperatures above 40 degrees C (104 F) with one in Xinjiang reaching 48.7 degrees C (119.7 F), Jia said. He did not rule out the chance of more record-breaking heat, saying August could prove as warm as, or even hotter than, in recent years. - Reuters
New Straits Times
a day ago
- New Straits Times
Heatwave hits water, electricity supplies across much of Iran
TEHERAN: A severe heatwave sweeping Iran has disrupted water and electricity supplies in much of the country, with reservoir levels dropping to their lowest point in a century, state media said Tuesday. At least 18 of the country's 31 provinces – including Teheran – have been affected by the extreme temperatures, which began on Friday and expected to ease gradually by Thursday, according to meteorological authorities cited by state television. Government offices in at least 10 provinces, including the capital, have been ordered to close on Wednesday in a bid to conserve water and electricity, as temperatures in parts of southern and southwestern Iran soared above 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). At least 10 provincial capitals recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius on Monday, including Tehran, which reached 40 degrees Celsius for the first time this year, the meteorological agency said. The heatwave comes amid a sharp drop in rainfall – the worst in 60 years in the capital, according to Tehran's Provincial Water Supply Company. The drought has seen the water levels of dams supplying Teheran drop to "their lowest level in a century", the company said, advising people to use a tank and pump to cope with ongoing water disruptions. Many residents across Teheran reported water outages lasting several hours in the past few days. "The water crisis is more serious than what is being talked about," President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday, adding that the country would "face a situation in the future for which no solution can be found" if current trends continue. "Measures such as transferring water from other places to Teheran will not solve the problem fundamentally," he said.
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Tourists and labourers seek respite as Greece and Balkans gripped by heatwave
A woman plays in a fountain during a hot day in Thessaloniki, Greece, July 21, 2025. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis ATHENS (Reuters) -Labourers were pausing outdoor work and tourists seeking out shade on Tuesday as Greece sweltered under its third heatwave of the summer and soaring temperatures gripped the wider Balkan region, fuellingwildfires in Albania. Situated at Europe's southernmost tip, Greece, which attracts dozens of millions of tourists every year, has always had hot and dry summers. But in recent years climate changehas led to longer and more severe heatwaves, as well as destructive floods andwildfires. Couriers, food delivery riders and builders in the wider area of the Greek capital Athens and other regions were among those ordered to pause work from midday until 5 p.m., as the mercury was expected to climb as high as 43 degrees Celsius, the labour ministry said. Workers with underlying health issues were advised to work remotely to avoid heat stress. Outside the parliament building in central Athens, a soldier used a towel to wipe the sweat from the face of a presidential guard. Tourists in Athens, one of the most densely populated capitals in Europe sittingon a plain flanked by mountains, sought out air-conditioned restaurants and stores, and some said they were staying inside in the middle of the day. ACROPOLIS SHUT Authorities announced that the Acropolis, which sits on a rocky hill offering barely any shade and is Greece's most visited ancient site, would be closed for five hours from midday on Tuesday and Wednesday, a common step when temperatures soar. The heatwave will continue until Sunday, the Greek meteorological service said. Scorching heat also gripped neighboring Bulgaria on Tuesday, with authorities urging businesses to give away water and cut physicallabour during high-riskhours. In Montenegro, major roads were congested as many rushed to the beaches to find relief from the heat. In Albania, firefightersassisted by four aircraft from Italy and Greece battled two wildfires at a national park in the north and near the southwestern village of Dukat. Last month, large parts of Western Europe sweltered in another severe heatwave that left many dead and triggered forest fires and health alerts across the region. Across the globe, 2024 was thewarmest year on record,with temperatures exceeding 1.5 Celsius above the pre-industrial era for the first time. Research published last week showed that the soil surface temperature around Athensrose in some places by as much as 10 degrees Celsius since July 2024 after fires destroyed vegetation. (Reporting by Stamos Prousalis, Angeliki Koutantou and Fatos Bytyci; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
