France lives a new wave of heat with temperatures of up to 41ºC, risk of increased drought and new fires

A From this Friday (8), his second heat wave of the summer period, with expected temperatures of up to 41º C, which can aggravate drought in the south of the country and cause new fires. “Very high temperatures should intensify early next week” and keep at least until the second half of the week, the weather service said. The new heat wave, which will peak on Sunday (10) and early next useful week, arrives while firefighters continue to struggle to extinguish a fire near Narbona in the south of the country. The fire spread for 17,000 hectares, before being stabilized on Thursday afternoon (7), leaving a death. It is one of the worst fires in France since World War II.

The first wave, which hit the European country between June 19 and July 6, recorded 480 additional deaths above the usual levels, the health authorities said. The Météo-France meteorological service decreed orange alert, the second highest, in 11 departments in the southern, this Friday, which will add another 17 on Saturday, in the country. With temperatures of up to 41 ° C on Sunday, Météo-France also warned of a “high” risk of fires in the Mediterranean region, which could aggravate the drought and fear of winemakers.

In Lyon, the French city that is often alert to hot waves, residents are preparing for this new increase in temperatures that should reach close to 40º C this weekend. Under a pergola in Bellecour Square, a sellenial, a 22 -year -old transport employee, pauses: “I try to protect myself from the sun,” he says. Scientists have been warning for years on the impact of climate change on heat waves, dried and other extreme, increasingly intense and frequent weather phenomena. The world lived the third month of hottest ever recorded, with an average temperature 1.25 ° C higher than the same period of the pre-industrial era (1850-1900), according to the European meteorological service Copernicus.

*With information from AFP