Drowning deaths soar in France as Europe buckles in peak of heatwave
Forty people have drowned in heatwave-related deaths in France since Thursday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said, as temperatures hit record levels in several major cities and the heatwave reaches a peak in several European countries.
According to Marina Ferrari, Minister of Sports and Youth, "It's not something to be taken lightly, going swimming in unsupervised areas during a heatwave," she stated on French radio. The heatwave has primarily affected France, Spain, and Italy thus far. Tuesday was the hottest June day ever recorded in France, reaching an average temperature of 29.8C. According to Météo France, the country's hottest night was Monday, when the minimum average temperature was 21.6 C. More than half of the country is on red alert.
On the third day of a national heatwave, temperatures in Spain are expected to reach above 40 degrees Celsius in some areas, prompting red alerts in Cantabria and the Basque Country in the north and Andalusia in the south. Spain is more exposed to the effects of climate change than almost any other European country. According to the state weather service Aemet, there have been 10 heatwaves in June in mainland Spain between 2000 and 2025, compared to just two in the previous 25 years. In addition, 15 cities in Italy, including Rome, Milan, Florence, Turin, and Venice, have been issued red heatwave alerts.
The alert warns of conditions that could be harmful to adults in good health, not just the elderly or those who are chronically ill. The sports minister of France said that too many people were trying to cool off in rivers and canals without thinking about the risks. A 13-year-old girl who had gone for a family swim on Sunday evening in Fontaine-La Port's River Seine despite not knowing how to swim was among the dead. In the meantime, a young professional football player was rescued from the River Rhône in a park near Lyon and was in critical condition at a nearby hospital. Four young men were in trouble in a section of the river where swimming is prohibited, and emergency services were called to the area to rescue them.
Children aged two and four were discovered in their family car in a parking lot in the southern city of Carpentras on Monday, and their deaths were also attributed to the scorching heat in France. As temperatures are expected to reach 40 C in the west and south-west by the end of the week, several people have also drowned in Germany. Six fatal swimming incidents occurred between Friday and Sunday, according to the German Lifesaving Association (DLRG). Men in particular were overestimating their abilities in the water, according to the association.
Days after three
men aged 23, 27, and 50 were reported missing in two distinct areas of the
Rhine, three bodies were discovered near the western town of Biblis.
Temperatures could reach 44 degrees Celsius on Tuesday in rural areas near the
southern city of Córdoba, according to Spain's Aemet weather service, while
they could reach 42 degrees Celsius in the Ebro valley in the north-east. In
101 of Aemet's 828 weather stations, temperatures hit or exceeded 40C on
Monday, with 45C recorded in Andújar.
Rubén del Campo of Aemet stated to Spanish media, "There is evidence that heatwaves were now taking place more frequently at the beginning of summer than in previous decades." Emergency labor protections have been reinstated in Italy by the government to prevent farm and construction workers, who are the most exposed to the sun, from having to work during the hottest hours. State-backed furlough support is now available to businesses that reduce or cease operations due to dangerous heat waves.
According to Météo France, the red alert would be increased from 54 to 58 of the country's 96 metropolitan departments on Wednesday afternoon, encompassing several regions in the north west. "The rail tracks cannot withstand temperatures above 50 °C," stated Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region, which encompasses the entirety of the Paris area. As a result, public transportation will be significantly impacted." The Eiffel Tower announced that it would close early on Tuesday due to the anticipated high temperatures in the capital. It stated that it would close at 16:00 (14:00 GMT), and the last time anyone could enter the tower was at 12:15. Last year, 6.75 million people visited the monument.
The
Louvre, the museum with the most visitors in the world, announced that it would
move its closing time from Wednesday to Saturday, from 18:00 to 16:00 local
time. "The build-up of heat is at its highest at the end of the day, and
intensified by the volume of visitors," the Louvre said of its historic
building, which "remains fragile and is not sufficiently adapted to
climate change." A nuclear power plant in southwest France had to be shut
down on Monday night as a result of the heatwave because water temperatures in
the River Garonne were expected to reach 28 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Under
French laws, water used to cool the reactors at the Golfech plant must not
exceed that temperature.
Spanish forecasters predict that temperatures on the Iberian peninsula will begin to fall on Wednesday, reaching their highest on Friday in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. A Code Orange weather alert has been issued by the Dutch weather service KNMI, indicating a "high chance of dangerous weather" in the southern and central regions from Wednesday to Friday. Belgium's Risk Management Group reported that it had activated the "alert phase of the national ozone and heat plan" for the second time following Tuesday's meeting.
The first event took place in August 2020, but apart from raising
awareness and calling for additional care for children and the elderly, no
specific national measures have been announced. Temperatures are rising
worldwide as a result of climate change, particularly in Europe. According to
the Copernicus climate service, it is the content that is warming the fastest,
warming twice as fast as the global average. This is causing increased summer
heatwaves, greater pressure on Europe's water supply, and more intense
wildfires. Over a record number of
hectares burned across Europe last year, with Spain particularly affected.
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