Austria has broken its national temperature record, with the mercury reaching 40.8C in Vienna, the country’s weather agency said.
The reading was recorded in Stammersdorf, in the eastern part of the capital, GeoSphere Austria said. It surpassed the previous national high of 40.5C, measured on 8 August, 2013, in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg in eastern Austria.
The record comes during an extraordinary period of heat and scarce rainfall, with local temperature and precipitation records already falling in several parts of the country.
Austria experienced its fourth-hottest July since records began, while “at some measuring stations, the precipitation deficit reached 90%”, the weather agency said.
Nasir Dis, a 60-year-old restaurant owner in Vienna, said the heat had driven away “very few” customers and described the conditions as “a catastrophe”.
“We just wait for this heat to be over. What can we do? Nothing… No one wants to eat or drink anything. Everyone just wants to barricade themselves at home,” he said.
The country had already endured its longest heatwave on record for June.
Across the border in Slovakia, Bratislava also registered its highest temperature ever: 40.8C. The reading broke the previous record of 39.9C, set just one day earlier, according to the national weather service.
France, meanwhile, recorded its hottest July since nationwide measurements began in 1900, overtaking the previous records set during the heatwaves of August 2003 and July 2006, the country’s weather service said.
July was also France’s third-driest on record. Rainfall was almost 70% below average, leaving soils severely parched and raising the danger of wildfires, Meteo-France added.
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John Kennedy, the World Meteorological Organisation’s head of climate information, said European heatwaves would become longer, more severe and more frequent “as long as we keep emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere”.
He said persistent high-pressure systems had contributed to a rise in wildfires and drought across the continent.
Another spell of extreme heat was forecast for parts of western Europe this week, forcing governments to respond to the effects of prolonged periods of unusually high temperatures.
In Greece, firefighters were fighting a major wildfire near Athens, while Italy placed almost all of its major cities under the highest “red” alert for extreme heat.
Hungary and Romania were among the countries warning of serious risks to energy infrastructure as the Danube River fell to a record low.
Mr Kennedy said the heat that began in spring had persisted through June and July, with all-time temperature records falling in France, Germany and Spain.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, Mr Kennedy said: “There are a number of factors that contribute to these heatwaves… we have these blocking situations where high pressure squats over the continents.
“Once that high pressure gets established, it can last for days or even weeks.”
The wreckage of a World War II German warship emerges from the Danube near Prahovo in Serbia
Such high-pressure systems bring both soaring temperatures and a lack of rain, creating the conditions for wildfires and drought.
Mr Kennedy said some heatwaves had also been followed by episodes of exceptionally heavy rainfall.
“We are getting a combination of extreme heat and extreme rainfall, these things can exist together, but we don’t necessarily see them at the same time every summer,” he said.
He said the World Meteorological Organisation supplies governments with data, forecasts and projections to help them make informed decisions about infrastructure and public safety.
Greece makes progress against wildfire near Athens
Greek firefighters made progress today in containing a wildfire that has burned for a fifth day on the outskirts of Athens, after calmer winds allowed water-bombing aircraft to resume large-scale operations.
More than 30 aircraft were deployed alongside 575 firefighters near the coastal village of Psatha, roughly 60 kilometres (37 miles) northwest of the capital, the fire service said.
“The situation has clearly improved compared to the last few days, but there are still many scattered hotspots, which means that forces remain on site to prevent a possible flare-up,” fire department communications chief Vassilis Vathrakoyannis said.
Much of the scorched landscape still hid smouldering or active pockets of fire, which could rapidly reignite if winds strengthened.
“It’s a huge area and there could be a flare-up again at any moment,” deputy fire department spokesman Yiannis Artopios had earlier told state broadcaster ERT.
The fire began on Friday and caused most of its destruction in villages along the Gulf of Corinth, including Porto Germeno, where scores of homes are believed to have been damaged or destroyed.
Police established checkpoints in Porto Germeno today, restricting access as officials examined the extent of the damage.
Pine-covered hills around the village, a popular summer escape for residents of Athens, had been transformed into blackened slopes. Dozens of homes were left gutted and deserted, while a burned-out fire engine lay amid the debris.
The greater Athens region, neighbouring Evia and several Aegean islands, including Chios and Lesbos, were placed under near-maximum fire risk for tomorrow, according to the civil protection ministry.
“This is the period where we usually see the biggest fires. Therefore we need to be very careful until August 20-25,” National Observatory research director Kostas Lagouvardos told ERT, warning that temperatures were expected to climb during the week.
Five firefighters have died in the wildfires since last week.
On Sunday, two Bell helicopters collided while taking part in operations on the western outskirts of Athens, killing a Danish pilot and his Greek co-pilot.
Three other firefighters died in Crete and the Peloponnese last week.
Other fires around Greece, including one on the Ionian island of Cephalonia, had been largely brought under control, the Greek fire service said.
“I would say that it is definitely one of the worst fire crises I’ve seen in the past, maybe eight to ten years,” Theodore Giannaros, a senior wildfire meteorologist at the National Observatory, told AFP.
The observatory said winds at the end of July were the strongest recorded in 15 years. It added that more than 13,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land had been affected by the Athens-area fire since it began on Friday.
Police arrested two people, including a local mayor, in connection with the blaze, which is believed to have started because of a faulty power cable.
More than 30 people have been detained across the country over fires allegedly started deliberately or through negligence. Those arrested include the mayor of the tourist island of Paros, where a landfill fire broke out last week.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned that Greece faced “extremely difficult” days ahead as high temperatures and dry conditions continued to intensify the fire threat.
As in much of the Mediterranean, Greece has seen wildfires become more frequent and destructive, a trend scientists associate with climate change.
