Fourth toddler dies in France as Europe’s brutal heatwave forecast to shift east | Extreme heat

The number of heatwave-related deaths in France has risen to four children and more than 55 drownings, as extremely hot conditions sweeping across Europe are predicted to shift eastwards, suffocating 150 million people in 35C (95F) temperatures.

Scientists said the heatwave was the most severe and widespread to date, with almost half of the region’s 850 largest cities grappling with unprecedented heat stress. They said the climate crisis is possible due to extreme temperatures caused by fossil fuel burning.

On Friday, a hospital in Marseille said an 18-month-old boy died in emergency care earlier in the week after he was found in a car in a state of hyperthermia. A police source told Le Figaro newspaper it was believed the father, who works in the area, may have left his son in the car when he was supposed to drop him off at nursery.

Earlier this week, a three-year-old boy was found dead in a suburb of Paris after getting into a car and becoming trapped when the child lock was activated. In a separate incident, the bodies of two children, ages two and four, were found in their parents’ car in a residential parking lot.

French Sports Minister Marina Ferrari said on Friday that at least 55 people had drowned across the country, increasing the number to 40 reported earlier in the week. “We were 55 last night but we fear the situation could get worse,” the broadcaster told Franceinfo.

In England, the Met Office said that the record for the hottest June day was broken for the third day in a row. Provisional figures showed the temperature in Santon Downham, Suffolk, on Friday was 37.3 degrees, beating the previous record of 36.7 degrees set on Thursday. “And temperatures are still rising,” the forecaster added.

aspect Red alert from Met Office As the heat continued for an unprecedented third day in London and south-east England, with the yellow alert covering much of central and eastern England, calls for further government action grew louder.

The UK Health Safety Agency’s red heat health warning was extended until 11pm on Friday and covers the whole of southern and central England; The yellow temperature-health warning was valid for all of England until 9 am on Sunday. Red alert means the risk to life is high, even for healthy people. Many hospitals declared critical incidents and health experts warned that emergency rooms were struggling to cope with the effects of the heatwave.

More than 1,000 schools in England have been closed or partially closed this week due to overheating in uninsulated and often unair-conditioned buildings. Train passengers were urged to avoid non-essential travel as many rail operators reduced or slowed services on Friday. Firefighters continued to battle a bushfire affecting nearly 200 hectares (494 acres) in Derbyshire.

The hose ban in Kent came into force on Friday morning after South East Water said demand had increased due to the heat. Late on Thursday, Britain’s energy operator raised the alarm over power supplies needed to meet extra demand for air conditioners and fans.

London’s ambulance service said it was responding to its highest ever number of life-threatening emergencies on Wednesday, and chief operations officer Craig Harman said he expected “demand to increase every day over the next few days”.

Officials in Paris, where temperatures reached a June record 40.9C on Wednesday, voiced similar concerns. “We are reaching a saturation point in hospital facilities,” Paris police chief Patrice Faure told BFM TV, while announcing the ban on takeaway alcohol consumption on the street.

The head of the French Association of Emergency Physicians said that 55 people died in emergency medical services in Paris in the last 24 hours. “Fifty-five is a huge number,” Patrick Pelloux told Reuters. “Normally there are three or four in 24 hours.”

Organizers of Paris Pride said they were likely to postpone the event until September after police expressed concerns that gatherings of thousands of people could increase pressure on emergency services. The Pride Parade in Lyon and the Solidays music festival, which aims to raise funds to support programs for people affected by HIV, have also been cancelled.

Extreme temperatures were expected to peak in France and the UK on Friday, while the heat was expected to intensify in central and eastern Europe.

In Belgium, a planned re-enactment of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, which regularly draws thousands of people, has been cancelled, while in the Netherlands, where authorities issued the first red alert for heat this week, organizers canceled the four-day techno music festival Defqon 1.

Budapest Pride, which emerged last year as a symbol of resistance to right-wing crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights, will go ahead as planned on Saturday, officials said, despite issuing the highest heat alert. Organizers asked vulnerable people to “support us from home” rather than attending in person.

On Friday, parts of the Balkans were bracing for temperatures to rise to 39°C, as were parts of Austria, where the national railway company warned train tracks could collapse in the coming days. Germany, where extreme heat caused the surface of the A2 motorway to buckle and break in many lanes on Thursday, was expecting high temperatures of around 40C.

The extremely hot conditions further east were not on the agenda for once. Although temperatures in Greece and Cyprus were in the upper 30s, temperatures were moderated by the Etesian winds, northerly winds that bring respite to the region every summer. Heavy rains, storms and even hail were expected in central Greece late Friday, a far cry from the scenes in major European capitals to the west.

Tourists, freed from the humidity that often comes with rising mercury levels, could be seen strolling leisurely among the ruins of downtown Athens; This is shared by authorities who have yet to announce the heat alerts seen in Western Europe.

In countries often at the forefront of the climate emergency, with the Mediterranean warming 20% ​​faster than the global average, temperatures are not expected to exceed 40°C until mid-July. Once they arrive, weather forecasters predict an extremely hot month or two with scorching days and nights.

John Kennedy, the World Meteorological Organization’s climate information chief, said Europe has warmed by about 2 degrees in the 50 years since the 1976 heat wave.

“Heat waves like this are what we expect to see in a changing climate,” he said. “As global warming continues, extreme temperatures will occur more frequently, for longer periods of time, and with greater intensity.”