Dubai — Al Bayan / Agencies
As thousands of tourists were leaving the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum hours before their usual closing times to escape the stifling heat, France was recording its hottest nights since climate records began roughly eight decades ago. Across Europe, the heatwave is no longer a passing weather event but has become a wide-ranging test of infrastructure, energy, transport, and even public safety.
France registered its highest average overnight temperatures since 1947, while authorities placed 54 départements under the highest level of climate alert for the first time since the warning system was adopted more than twenty years ago. Temperatures touched 43 degrees Celsius in some areas, with forecasts pointing to continued hot conditions in the days ahead.
The consequences of the heatwave were not limited to record-breaking figures. French authorities announced that 40 people had drowned since 18 June, most of them young people who had attempted to escape the heat by swimming in rivers and waterways.
Some schools also closed their doors or postponed end-of-year examinations. The effects extended to the country's most prominent tourist landmarks: the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower both opted for early closure due to the difficult climatic conditions, while the Golfech nuclear power station in southwestern France halted operations after the temperature of the water in the Garonne river rose to levels that trigger environmental restrictions on cooling operations.
In the United Kingdom, authorities issued a rare red extreme-heat warning as the country braced for its highest temperature ever recorded in June. The hot weather led to early school closures and disrupted train services, while London experienced sudden flooding caused by thunderstorms that accompanied the hot air mass. Italy, meanwhile, declared a maximum-alert state in 15 cities, including Rome and Milan, with warnings expected to widen in the hours ahead. In Austria, experts cautioned that the drought and rising evaporation rates were aggravating a water crisis and depleting groundwater levels.