Europe in the grip of heat and fires: Spain and France devastated, 47 ° c in Portugal. An area as large as the Aosta Valley burned down

The grip of the heat does not loosen on Europe, fires devastate tens of thousands of hectares of woods everywhere, peaks of 42 degrees are recorded in various countries. Europe but not only, because drought, record heat and fires started first in North Africa, particularly in many areas of Morocco. Now the heat has invaded the Old Continent and does not spare even the north of Europe, while in Italy the thermometer is destined to rise again: next week many cities will find themselves above 40 degrees. Among the many emergencies caused by the torrid summer, that of fires has aggravated an already heavy situation due to record drought. But a sad record was also surpassed for the destruction – in the states of the European Union – of wooded areas for a total of 346,000 hectares, a larger area than the entire Valle d’Aosta (326,000 hectares). A figure that is triple, when calculating the fires in the same period of the year, compared to the average of the last 16 years. The number of major fires since the beginning of the year – four times more than in the past 16 years – also paints a dramatic picture of a rapidly worsening situation. The new African anticyclone that sweeps Europe, and which is the sixth of 2022, pushes the mercury column around 40 degrees even at unthinkable latitudes: Germany, Denmark and Great Britain – among others – are on alert. In Spain, the climate is already hot, with peaks of 45-46 degrees, while freezing, the altitude above which the temperature drops below zero, could rise up to 4,800 meters. In France, where fires in the south of the Gironde have devastated 10,000 hectares of woods in recent days, the mass of high pressure is moving from west to east and in the next few hours it will land in Paris, where it will touch 40 degrees. Yesterday President Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to the operational crisis unit, assured that France is “mobilized” against fires and that it will “hold up” to this unprecedented situation. But 37 degrees and above will be recorded in Danish cities, in London, and at least 30 in Dublin. As for Italy, 37-38 degrees are arriving in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, where there are already 6-7 degrees higher than the average for this same period. But the most critical situations are those that are hypothesized in these hours for the Po Valley, Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio, where the thermometer will show up to 42 degrees. The Adriatic side and the south, on the other hand, will experience a period of simple “heat” without exceptional peaks. In Milan, the record of absolute heat that has lasted since 11 August 2003, when 39.3 degrees was reported, is at risk. On the Italian front of the fires, the lighthouse of the day is focused on Sardinia, where 24 have flared up, making it necessary to resort to teams of firefighters, helicopters and a Canadair taken off from Olbia. Flames also in the Lecco area, with a fire that developed in Valgreghentino. The most optimistic think that the heat wave will subside by the end of next week, but the fears of the weather services are that the wave of the anticyclone could last until the end of July.