France registered yesterday its highest temperature since records began, as the death toll rose from a heatwave suffocating much of Europe.
Records began at the turn of the 20th century.
The mercury hit 45.1° Celsius (113.2° Fahrenheit) in Villevieille, in the southerly Provence region, the weather forecaster Meteo France said, a whole degree above the previous high of 44.1°C recorded in August 2003.
Earlier the mercury rose above 44°C in the southeastern town of Carpentras.
The town was deserted, with cafe owners contemplating empty terraces, which would normally be packed.
“We have never seen this!” one exclaimed.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called on the public to act with a “sense of responsibility” during what he said was an “exceptionally early and exceptionally intense” heatwave.
“Heatwaves lead to avoidable deaths because the heat, the tension sometimes, makes people take risks,” he warned.
The new record makes France just the seventh European country to have recorded a 45°C+ temperature, along with Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and North Macedonia, Meteo France said.
The World Meteorological Organisation said 2019 is on track to be among the world’s hottest years, and that 2015-2019 would then be the hottest five-year period on record.
It said the European heatwave was “absolutely consistent” with extremes linked to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.
Four administrative departments in France were placed on red alert, signalling temperatures of “dangerous intensity” that are more typical of Saudi Arabia.
Temperatures in parts of Spain were expected to hit a new June record of 43°C.
Since 1975, Spain has registered nine heatwaves in June.
Five of them, however, have been in the last decade, according to the Spanish meteorological office.
In Catalonia, northeast Spain, wildfires were raging across 60sq km (23sq miles) of land, but firefighters said that area could quadruple.
Farmers were asked to stop all work across the region for 48 hours.
Hundreds of firefighters backed by troops and aerial water bombers were trying to bring it under control.
They were hampered by roasting 44°C temperatures and very low humidity according to David Borrell, head of the Catalan fire department.
In the city of Valladolid in central Spain, a man of 93 collapsed and died due to the heat.
And in a small town outside Cordoba, a 17-year-old died of heat-related effects, regional health authorities said.
After feeling dizzy while helping harvest wheat in the southern Andalusia region, the teenager collapsed with convulsions when he took a dip in a swimming pool to cool off.
He was rushed to hospital in the town of Cordoba where he later died, the regional government said.
Heat-related deaths have also been reported in Italy, France and Germany, mainly among the elderly.
France remains haunted by the memory of the devastating heatwave of August 2003 which exposed the shortcomings of emergency services at the height of the summer holidays.
That year, nearly 15,000 people are estimated to have died because of the heat, many of them elderly people at home.
In France, one boy was seriously hurt when he was thrown back by a jet of water from a fire hydrant.
Some 4,000 schools were either closed or running a limited service to help working parents unable to stay at home.
French families with elderly relatives who were ill or living alone were advised to call or visit them twice a day and take them to cool places, while the state-run rail operator SNCF offered free cancellations or exchanges on long-distance trips.
The greater Paris region, Ile de France, had already banned more than half of cars from its roads as the stifling heat worsened air pollution, the toughest restriction provided for – although all cars were to be allowed to leave the city as school holidays began.
The cities of Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille have also restricted traffic.
The unusually high temperatures are forecast to last until early next week.
In Montpellier, 81-year-old Suzette Allegre was up early to do her shopping.
By 8am, “the sun is already burning hot and you can smell the pollution”, she told AFP, saying that she was rushing home to barricade herself indoors.
Scientists warn that global warming linked to human fossil fuel use could make such scorchers more frequent.
French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn warned those tempted to plunge into cold water, both young and old, to do so only in designated public bathing areas, adding that four people had drowned since the beginning of the week.
On Thursday, she complained that despite a barrage of public health warnings on radio, TV and on public transport, some parents were still leaving their children in hot cars and joggers were out exercising in the midday heat.
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