Wildfires tore through forests and homes in Greece as a relentless heatwave scorched southern Europe, part of a wave of extreme weather afflicting the world from roasting temperatures in the southern United States to flooding in parts of Asia.
The United Nation’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) dubbed it the “summer of extremes” and warned no respite was yet in sight as it was possible the weather could extend into August.
“What is happening now with all these extremely hot days and the fires, it’s coming home directly in the citadels of the developed countries,” said Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines, which has long been threatened by climate change and rising seas, on the sidelines of a summit in Brussels.
“Ordinary people are saying: Jesus, what these people have been talking about all the time, this is true, this is real, this is happening.”
Travel trends for the year ahead: where, when and how Irish holidaymakers are booking trips in 2024
In pictures: Crowds take to the beaches amid record high September temperatures
Greece reinforces firefighters as massive wildfire shows no sign of abating after 10 days
Wildfires in Greece force more evacuations as other European blazes are brought under control
Italy issued red alerts for 23 cities on Wednesday, warning of a level of heat that poses a threat to life, as Rome smashed through a previous record for high temperatures set last summer.
The WMO said sea temperatures were 4 degrees above average in a large part of the western Mediterranean, and that parallel “heat domes” had settled over North Africa, the Mediterranean, Asia and the southern United States while extreme rainfall caused floods in South Korea, India, Japan and the northeastern US.
“The extreme weather – an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate – is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy and water supplies,” WMO secretary general prof Petteri Taalas said.
“This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible.”
Scores of firefighters from Romania, Slovakia and Poland rushed to Greece after Athens appealed for help to douse water on the wildfires as they tore through forests and homes.
Thousands of people fled seaside towns and villages around Athens as television footage showed charred homes and cars, after fires incinerated thousands of hectares of forest.
“We are in despair,” the deputy mayor for civil protection in the devastated town of Mandra west of Athens, Panagiotis Koloventzos, told local media.
Four boats were put on standby to rescue people from the island of Rhodes, where fires forced the evacuation of four villages and a hotel.
The fires were fuelled by strong winds and temperatures that surged above 40 degrees, and plumes of flame consumed trees and vegetation that had been dried out through weeks of heat and little rainfall.
On the Spanish island of La Palma, firefighters gained the upper hand on a wildfire that consumed 3,500 hectares, while Swiss authorities banned barbecues in the Alpine region of Valais after a wildfire spread rapidly through forest that had been dried out by a lack of rain.
In Italy, where temperatures were forecast to reach 46 degrees in parts, a group representing emergency doctors said the heatwave had caused a 20 per cent increase in the number of medical emergencies, particularly among the elderly.
The prolonged heatwave follows a June that is estimated to have been the warmest on record, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a statement recommending the need for people in Europe to adapt to live safely with heat as more extreme temperatures become more common.
“Beyond adapting to our new reality this summer, we must look to the years and decades ahead,” the WHO’s regional Europe director Dr Hans Kluge said in the statement.
“There is a desperate and urgent need for regional and global action to effectively tackle the climate crisis, which poses an existential threat to the human race.”
