Spain, Romania and Greece are a few of the countries battling this summer’s extreme temperatures.
Extreme heat continues to scorch Europe, with nine municipalities across Spain under orange warnings for high temperatures.
According to Spain’s Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the hottest region is expected to be Andalusia, where the temperature is set to rise to 42 degrees Celsius in the provinces of Granada and Jaén and trigger orange alert warnings.
“I would say that in the end you don’t do anything in summer. I mean, you can only go out after eight in the evening because you can’t do anything in this heat,” said a resident in Madrid.
The AEMET warns that with the orange alert, there is an important meteorological risk with some danger for usual activities.
In the Balearic Islands, as in the Community of Madrid, only the island of Mallorca is under an orange alert for temperatures reaching 40°C. In the mountains of Madrid, however, maximum temperatures will be a little milder, not exceeding 34°C.
Romania is also suffering from an ongoing heatwave, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees in the second half of the week.
“I think it is the first year with so high temperatures, we never had something like this. I remember my childhood, they used to alert on TV about the heat, about the code red alerts, but there were 33, 34 degrees Celsius, and now there is only code yellow when there are 40 degrees already,” explained one resident.
In July, Romania went through the longest code red heatwave in history, according to meteorologists. In six days of unbearable heat, the country recorded hundreds of temperature records, with maximum values exceeding 41 degrees Celsius in the shade in Cernavodã, Bucharest and Calafat (regions in the south of the country), while the real feeling of even higher temperatures.
Meanwhile, wildfires are spreading in Greece, Albania, North Macedonia and Croatia.
Evacuation orders are in place in several Greek regions and firefighters spent the night battling a blaze on the island of Evia.
Fires in Albania and North Macedonia are threatening many residential areas and in Croatia firefighters are attempting to control a huge blaze near the town of Skradin.
The extreme heat is emanating from a large mass of hot air which has travelled across the Mediterranean from North Africa and brought with it dust from the desert.
In Portugal, people have been urged to limit outdoor activity and keep their windows closed where possible owing to the poor air quality.
