Temperatures reached new highs on Monday as heat waves scorched parts of the Northern Hemisphere, triggering health warnings and fanning wildfires in the latest stark reminder of the effects of global warming.
From North America to Europe and Asia, people gulped water and sought shelter from the sweltering heat, with the mercury expected to reach new highs in several places in the next few days.
Europe, the globe’s fastest- warming continent, was bracing for its hottest-ever temperature this week on Italy’s islands of Sicily and Sardinia, where a high of 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) is predicted, according to the European Space Agency.
“We’re from Texas and it’s really hot there, we thought we would escape the heat but it’s even hotter here,” Colman Peavy, 30, said as he sipped a capuccino at an outside terrasse in central Rome with his wife Ana at the start of a two-week Italian vacation.
With June already having been the world’s hottest on record, according to the EU weather monitoring service, Mother Nature seemed intent on July not falling far behind.
China reported a new high for mid-July in the northwest of the country, where temperature reached 52.2C in the Xinjiang region’s village of Sanbao, breaking the previous high of 50.6C set six years ago.
In nearby Turpan city, where ground surface temperatures sizzled at 80C in some parts, authorities have told workers and students to stay home and ordered special vehicles to spray water on major thoroughfares, the meteorological body said.
In Cyprus, where temperatures are expected to remain above 40C through Thursday,
a 90-year-old man died as a result of heatstroke and three other seniors were hospitalized, health officials said.
In Japan, heatstroke alerts were issued in 32 out of the country’s 47 prefectures, mainly in central and southwestern regions.
At least 60 people in Japan were treated for heatstroke, local media reported, including 51 who were taken to hospital in Tokyo.
The heat was enough for at least one man to dispense with social mortification in Hamamatsu city.
“It’s honestly unbearable without a parasol, although I have to admit it is a bit embarrassing,” he told national broadcaster NHK of the umbrella in his hand.
BDST: 1019 HRS, JULY 18, 2023
MSK
