PARIS/MADRID >> Forty people have drowned in France over recent days as they sought to cool down to escape record heat, the prime minister said today, as a heat wave swept across much of Europe.
Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Spain were also sweltering in extreme heat, with record temperatures in some areas disrupting schools and transport networks and forcing tourist sites — including the Eiffel Tower — to shut.
Europe is warming at more than twice the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization, making such prolonged heat episodes increasingly likely.
France experienced its hottest day on record today, Meteo France forecaster said, with a peak of 111.7 degrees Fahrenheit in one town in the southwest.
Fifty-four departments are under red alerts in what Meteo France said was unprecedented. That will jump to 58 on Wednesday.
Across the country, people have been jumping into canals and rivers to cool off.
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Sports Minister Marina Ferrari said she understood the urge to escape the heat but warned against swimming in unauthorized or dangerous areas.
Speaking ahead of an emergency meeting on the heat wave, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called the drownings “a sad scourge” and said there had been 40 deaths since June 18, most of them young people.
On Monday, first responders were unable to resuscitate two children, ages 2 and 4, who were found unconscious by their mother in the family car outside their home, said a prosecutor in Carpentras, southeast France.
The heat wave is being driven by a weather pattern known as an Omega block, because it takes the shape of the Greek letter Ω, with a bulge of hot air trapped between cooler systems, allowing temperatures to build day after day.
Heat waves and storms are being intensified by climate change.
Meteo France said current conditions were comparable to the August 2003 heat wave, which lasted 16 days and led to an estimated 80,000 excess deaths across Europe. It was uncertain how long the current episode would last.
“Thursday will once again be a sweltering day (in France), with temperatures remaining just as high. On Friday, a gradual drop is expected to begin from the Atlantic coast,” the weather forecaster said. Heat waves can affect people’s physical and mental health, but also force businesses to adapt and put grain harvests at risk.
In Italy, the health ministry issued its highest-level alert for 15 cities and authorities took measures to curtail work in some sectors.
Storms were expected over the Alps and Apennines, bringing heavy rain, gusty winds and hail.
Britain is also in the grip of the heat, with the Met Office forecasting temperatures of up to 98.6 F in southern England today — potentially a new June record — before rising further on Wednesday and Thursday.
Dozens of schools planned early closures.
Transport networks across Europe came under strain, with trains canceled or running more slowly.
Spain’s meteorological agency has issued red alerts across parts of the country, warning of dangerous heat with temperatures expected to reach 111.2 F. Dozens of municipalities across northern Spain canceled traditional bonfires due to wildfire risks.
Madrid has opened climate shelters for the homeless and other vulnerable people.
In Belgium, soaring temperatures forced a primary school near Brussels to relocate its final exams to a nearby church.
In Switzerland, the northeastern canton of St. Gallen restricted water withdrawal from rivers and lakes, citing low levels and high temperatures.
In cities affected by the heat wave, fans and air conditioning units were flying off the shelves.
“I came quick, I haven’t even had my coffee this morning, I ran here to buy an electric fan,” said filmmaker Victoria Yakubov, who managed to snag one last remaining fan in a Paris shop. “Everything was gone in less than 30 minutes.”
It was the same story in London, with fans “flying off the shelves,” John Lewis Oxford Street branch manager Paul Marsden said.
As parts of Europe baked, and the Eiffel Tower closed at 4 a.m. Hawaii time because of the heat, cooler northern destinations were drawing tourists seeking a “coolcation.”
“We were thinking about traveling to Croatia, but we came to Sweden because it’s cooler here,” said German tourist Katharina Rexing in Stockholm’s Old Town, on a day when it was 71.6 F in the Swedish capital and 86 F in Croatia’s Zagreb.
Reporting by Giselada Vagnoni in Rome, Clotaire Achi and Elissa Darwish in Paris, Sudip Kar-Gupta in Brussels, Sarah Young in London, Emma Pinedo in Madrid, Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Mariano Valladolid in Seville, Marleen Kasebier in Switzerland, Tom Little and Ilze Filks in Stockholm.