Europe scorched: France closes schools, Italy reduces work
The risks of working outside in searing temperatures were highlighted as Spanish trade unions attributed the death of a construction worker near Bologna on Monday to the heat. In Barcelona, authorities were looking into whether the death of a street sweeper over the weekend was also heat-related.
Turkey continued to battle wildfires which forced the temporary evacuation of around 50,000 people on Monday in areas surrounding the city of Izmir, the province of Manisa and Hatay in the southeast.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, with extreme heatwaves starting earlier in the year and persisting for longer.
"What is exceptional ... but not unprecedented is the time of year," said World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis, adding that extreme heat episodes were seen now "which normally we would see later on in the summer."
Higher temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea tend to reinforce extreme temperatures over land areas, she said.
The Mediterranean Sea hit a record 30 C off Spain, six degrees above the seasonal average, Spanish weather forecaster AEMET said, as a high pressure system trapped hot air above Europe, a phenomenon known as a heat dome.
Spain recorded its hottest June last month, with an average temperature of 23.6 C, AEMET said.
Indeed, for the continent, the month likely ranks among the five warmest Junes on record, Copernicus said. England experienced its hottest June since at least 1884, the Met Office said, citing provisional data.
The Red Cross set up an air-conditioned "climate refuge" for residents in southern Malaga, said IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa, while in Germany, people hit the ski slopes to avoid heat in the cities.
Extreme heat kills up to 480,000 people annually around the world, according to Swiss Re, which notes this exceeds the combined toll from floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.
The heat was set to peak in France on Tuesday, reaching 40-41 C in some areas, weather forecaster Meteo France said. Nearly 1,900 schools were closed, up from around 200 on Monday.
A Paris-Milan rail service was disrupted because of a mudslide on the French side of the Alps, with full service not expected to be fully restored until mid-July, French rail operator SNCF said.
The top floor of the Eiffel Tower closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, disappointing scores of visitors.
"I tried to get all organised before our departure and the result is nonsense," said Laia Pons, 42, a teacher from Barcelona who booked Eiffel tickets for her family three years ago. When temperatures rise, the puddled iron used to build the Eiffel Tower expands in size and tilts slightly, with no impact on its structural integrity, according to its website.
Italy, meanwhile, issued heatwave red alerts for 17 cities, including Milan and Rome. In Sicily, a woman with a heart condition died while walking in the city of Bagheria, news agencies reported, possibly of heatstroke. - AFP
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a day ago
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Opinion- What Europe's heatwave tells us about ourselves
Stepping out just after dawn in Muscat, heat drapes across my shoulders, heavy as a wool cloak. The car thermometer already blinks 35, yet a news alert says Brussels will match us by mid-afternoon. A heat dome now stretches from Seville to Warsaw; two deaths reported in Italy, thousands may follow when Spanish tarmac tops 40. The European Environment Agency's new dashboard lays bare the pattern behind that alert. Last year, weather- and climate-related disasters drained Europe of €45 billion, pushing accumulated losses to €790 billion since 1980. Only a third was insured; the rest fell on households and small firms. Heatwaves remain the continent's deadliest hazard, claiming more lives than storms and floods combined. That is the backdrop against which the European Commission is still debating whether to propose a ninety-per cent emissions-cut target for twenty-forty. Half the commissioners' chiefs argued it was 'the wrong moment.' The irony is painful: outside the Berlaymont, pavements buckle; inside, policy stalls. Europe's paralysis matters far beyond its borders. In Bonn last week, technical negotiators laboured to keep global climate diplomacy on track ahead of COP 30 in Belém. Talks opened two days late because parties fought over adding adaptation finance to the agenda and they closed with bracket-ridden draft texts nobody loved. A leaked note from an EU delegate warned 'disappointed camps' now threaten progress unless gaps in finance, trust and accountability narrow quickly. I caught myself asking: If even seasoned diplomats cannot agree on protecting the vulnerable, what chance do ordinary citizens have? And yet we cannot afford to disengage. Oman should care about gridlock six thousand kilometres away because Europe is already living the climate future we are racing towards. Why should Oman care about gridlock six thousand kilometres away? Because Europe is living the climate future we are racing towards. Extreme heat, water scarcity and infrastructure strain are postcards from a world already 1.4 °C warmer than the nineteenth-century baseline. If one of the wealthiest blocs struggles to insure losses or align on policy, waiting for perfect consensus is a gamble we cannot afford. The European data suggest three priorities we would do well to accelerate. First, put worker dignity at the centre of our heat-response playbook, from rig crews to construction workers to date farmers, whose bodies bear the brunt of soaring temperatures. A national heat-health dashboard with a publicly graded system for such people can save lives. Productivity cannot outrun the pulse of those who build our ambitions. Second, we must sew up the insurance gap before disaster strikes. Transparent climate-risk disclosures under Oman Vision 2040 should guide banks and insurers towards affordable cover, sparing public coffers and family savings alike. Third, we must treat adaptation finance as growth capital. Coastal protection, smart irrigation and heat-resilient housing create today's jobs and tomorrow's resilience. Our sovereign funds can ring-fence a slice of their portfolios for precisely that mission. Diplomatically, Oman can help bridge the finance-adaptation divide splitting talks. A Gulf coalition linking exporters with importers, technology haves with have-nots, could shift the mood music before ministers gather in Belém. Bonn's procedural knots must not become COP 30's opening chord. Europe's struggle is our warning flare and Bonn's procedural knots mirror challenges in every capital. Either hesitation scorches the opportunities still within reach, or we act, insuring what we cherish, shielding whom we love and investing in the resilient future Oman deserves. The oud-like drone of the AC reminds me: a single sustained note can fill a room.
Observer
2 days ago
- Observer
What Europe's heatwave tells us about ourselves
Stepping out just after dawn in Muscat, heat drapes across my shoulders, heavy as a wool cloak. The car thermometer already blinks 35, yet a news alert says Brussels will match us by mid-afternoon. A heat dome now stretches from Seville to Warsaw; two deaths reported in Italy, thousands may follow when Spanish tarmac tops 40. The European Environment Agency's new dashboard lays bare the pattern behind that alert. Last year, weather- and climate-related disasters drained Europe of €45 billion, pushing accumulated losses to €790 billion since 1980. Only a third was insured; the rest fell on households and small firms. Heatwaves remain the continent's deadliest hazard, claiming more lives than storms and floods combined. That is the backdrop against which the European Commission is still debating whether to propose a ninety-per cent emissions-cut target for twenty-forty. Half the commissioners' chiefs argued it was 'the wrong moment.' The irony is painful: outside the Berlaymont, pavements buckle; inside, policy stalls. Europe's paralysis matters far beyond its borders. In Bonn last week, technical negotiators laboured to keep global climate diplomacy on track ahead of COP 30 in Belém. Talks opened two days late because parties fought over adding adaptation finance to the agenda and they closed with bracket-ridden draft texts nobody loved. A leaked note from an EU delegate warned 'disappointed camps' now threaten progress unless gaps in finance, trust and accountability narrow quickly. I caught myself asking: If even seasoned diplomats cannot agree on protecting the vulnerable, what chance do ordinary citizens have? And yet we cannot afford to disengage. Oman should care about gridlock six thousand kilometres away because Europe is already living the climate future we are racing towards. Why should Oman care about gridlock six thousand kilometres away? Because Europe is living the climate future we are racing towards. Extreme heat, water scarcity and infrastructure strain are postcards from a world already 1.4 °C warmer than the nineteenth-century baseline. If one of the wealthiest blocs struggles to insure losses or align on policy, waiting for perfect consensus is a gamble we cannot afford. The European data suggest three priorities we would do well to accelerate. First, put worker dignity at the centre of our heat-response playbook, from rig crews to construction workers to date farmers, whose bodies bear the brunt of soaring temperatures. A national heat-health dashboard with a publicly graded system for such people can save lives. Productivity cannot outrun the pulse of those who build our ambitions. Second, we must sew up the insurance gap before disaster strikes. Transparent climate-risk disclosures under Oman Vision 2040 should guide banks and insurers towards affordable cover, sparing public coffers and family savings alike. Third, we must treat adaptation finance as growth capital. Coastal protection, smart irrigation and heat-resilient housing create today's jobs and tomorrow's resilience. Our sovereign funds can ring-fence a slice of their portfolios for precisely that mission. Diplomatically, Oman can help bridge the finance-adaptation divide splitting talks. A Gulf coalition linking exporters with importers, technology haves with have-nots, could shift the mood music before ministers gather in Belém. Bonn's procedural knots must not become COP 30's opening chord. Europe's struggle is our warning flare and Bonn's procedural knots mirror challenges in every capital. Either hesitation scorches the opportunities still within reach, or we act, insuring what we cherish, shielding whom we love and investing in the resilient future Oman deserves. The oud-like drone of the AC reminds me: a single sustained note can fill a room.
Observer
2 days ago
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France shuts schools as heatwave grips Europe
PARIS/MADRID: More than a thousand schools were closed in France on Tuesday and the top floor of the Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists as a severe heatwave continued to grip Europe, triggering health alerts across the region. The Mediterranean Sea was up to 6 degrees Celsius warmer than usual for the time of year, hitting a record of as much as 30 C (86 F) in Spain's Balearic Sea as a heat dome trapped hot air above Europe, the country's Aemet weather forecaster said. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, making extreme heatwaves occur earlier in the year, and persist into later months. In France, the heat was set to peak on Tuesday, reaching 40-41 C in some areas and 36-39 C in most others, weather forecaster Meteo France said. Sixteen departments will be on the highest level of alert from noon, with 68 on the second highest. Some 1,350 schools will be fully or partially closed due to the heat, up significantly from around 200 on Monday, the Education Ministry said. The top floor of the Eiffel Tower will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, with visitors advised to drink plenty of water. The extreme heat also raised the risk of field fires as farmers in France, the European Union's biggest grain producer, start harvesting this year's crop. Some farmers were working through the night to avoid harvesting during peak temperatures in the afternoon. In the Indre region of central France, which has seen a spate of field fires since late June, authorities banned field work between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. HEALTH ALERTS The intense heat could harm biodiversity, some experts said. "In the past we have seen impacts like mass mortalities of invertebrate species, die-offs of seagrass beds and disease outbreaks in mussel farms. It's likely that we'll see similar impacts from this event," said scientist Kathryn Smith of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Health alerts have been issued across Europe, with residents and tourists alike seeking ways to keep cool. Extreme heat kills up to 480,000 people annually around the world, according to Swiss Re, which notes this exceeds the combined toll from floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. In a retirement home in Grimbergen, Belgium, residents passed a ball to each other in a paddling pool. "To me it's a great activity," said Marie-Jeanne Olbrechts, one of the residents. The DGG association for geriatric care in Germany said most regions of the country were not adequately prepared for a heatwave. "If they were, they could prevent tens of thousands of deaths in the future," said Clemens Becker, author of a study conducted on behalf of the DGG. Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a key cause of climate change, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet's hottest on record.
