Expectations are now high that on Tuesday the British record of 38.7C could be smashed and 40C broken for the first time, with experts blaming climate change and predicting more frequent extreme weather. Temperatures are also forecast to rise above 35C in the Netherlands, while neighboring Belgium is expected to reach 40C and above. In France, many towns and cities recorded their highest temperatures on Monday, the national weather service said. The mercury reached 39.3 degrees Celsius in Brest, on Britain’s Atlantic coast in the north-west of the country, breaking a previous record of 35.1 degrees Celsius from 2002. Saint-Brieuc, on the Channel coast, reached 39.5C, surpassing the previous record of 38.1C, and the western city of Nantes recorded 42C, surpassing the decade high of 40.3C set in 1949. Firefighters in southwest France are still battling in sweltering heat to contain two huge fires that have caused widespread destruction. For almost a week, armies of firefighters and a fleet of water-bombing planes have been battling the flames, which have mobilized much of France’s firefighting capacity. chart of the devastation caused by the fires in France “It never stops,” said David Brunner, one of 1,500 firefighters battling the Gironde blaze, which since Tuesday has destroyed 14,000 hectares of pine forest near the Dune du Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune and a hotspot for summer tourism. “In 30 years of firefighting I have never seen a fire like this before.” An area 5.5 miles (9 km) long and 5 miles wide was still burning near the dune on Monday, with temperatures in the area forecast to reach 44 degrees Celsius. A total of 8,000 people were evacuated from near the dune as a precaution on Monday as shifting winds blew thick smoke into residential areas, officials said. “We are refugees of climate change,” Théo Dayan, 26, told Le Monde after fleeing his home near the village of La Teste-de-Buch. Jean-Luc Gleyze, the head of the local fire service, said: “We’re not reaching out and touching global warming – it’s hitting us in the face.” About 32,000 tourists or residents were forced to evacuate to France, many in emergency shelters. Fifteen departments have been placed on the highest alert for extreme temperatures, including Brittany, where the coastal city of Brest was set to reach 40C on Monday, almost double the usual July average. The European heat wave is the second to hit parts of the southwest continent in recent weeks. European Commission researchers meanwhile said almost half (46%) of the EU territory was exposed to a warning level of drought. Ireland saw temperatures of 33C in Dublin – the highest since 1887 – while in the Netherlands, temperatures reached 35.4C in the southern town of Westdorpe. While that wasn’t a record, warmer temperatures are expected there on Tuesday. The fires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have destroyed thousands of hectares of land. A firefighter walks through flames at a wildfire in Gironde, France. Photo: Philippe Lopez/AP On Monday night, French prosecutors in the southwestern city of Bordeaux said a man suspected of starting one of the fires in the area had been taken into custody. Last week’s extreme temperatures instantly claimed at least four lives in Spain and sparked dozens of forest fires – many of which are still burning – that have burned nearly 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) across the country. The fire burning in the northwestern province of Zamora has claimed the life of a 69-year-old shepherd, regional authorities said. On Sunday, a firefighter died in the same area. Later on Monday it was reported that an office worker in his fifties died of heatstroke in Madrid. Authorities reported about 20 fires still raging from the south to Galicia in the northwest, where flames have destroyed about 4,500 hectares (more than 11,000 acres) of land. During a visit to the southwestern region of Extremadura on Monday morning, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez paid tribute to Gullón Vara and said the events of the past week were further proof of the climate crisis. “I want to make something very clear,” he said. “Climate change kills: it kills people, as we have seen. it’s also killing our ecosystem, our biodiversity, and it’s also destroying the things we love as a society – our homes, our businesses, our animals.” In neighboring Portugal – where temperatures reached 47 degrees last week – fires have been brought under control after ravaging 12,000-15,000 hectares of land, killing two people and injuring 60 others. “We found the car and these two people, around 70 years old, completely burnt,” Murca Mayor Mario Artur Lopez told SIC Noticias television. The victims were from the nearby village of Penabeice, he added. Blur from a wildfire near Guarda, Portugal. Photo: Miguel Pereira Da Silva/EPA Temperatures dropped over the weekend, but the risk of wildfires remained very high, according to the Portuguese Meteorological Institute (IPMA). More than 1,000 firefighters, supported by 285 vehicles and 14 aircraft, were battling nine ongoing fires, mostly in the northern regions of the country, authorities said. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
