Hello,
This week continues to focus on the developments from the deadly heat waves scorching cities on four continents as the Northern Hemisphere marks the first day of summer – a sign that climate change may fuel record-breaking heat that could surpass last summer as the warmest in 2,000 years.
Record temperatures already reached in recent days are suspected to have caused hundreds if not thousands of deaths across Asia and Europe.
Countries around the Mediterranean have also endured another week of blistering high temperatures that have contributed to forest fires from Portugal to Greece and along the northern coast of Africa in Algeria, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Observatory.
In Serbia, meteorologists forecast temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week as winds from North Africa propelled a hot front across the Balkans. Health authorities declared a red weather alert and advised people not to venture outdoors.
Belgrade’s emergency service said its doctors intervened 109 times overnight to treat people with heart and chronic health conditions.
In neighboring Montenegro, where health authorities also warned people to stay in the shade until late afternoon, tens of thousands of tourists sought refreshment on the beaches along its Adriatic coast.
Greece this year has been contending with a spate of dead and missing tourists amid dangerous heat. A 55-year-old American was found dead on the Greek island of Mathraki, police said on Monday – the third such tourist death in a week.
Parts of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest are also wilting under a heat dome, with more than 86 million people under a heat alert on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
A heat dome occurs when a strong, high-pressure system traps hot air over a region, preventing cool air from getting in and causing ground temperatures to remain high.
Under its heat emergency plan, New York City said it would open its cooling centers for the first time this year.
Meteorological authorities also issued an excessive heat warning for parts of Arizona, including Phoenix, on Thursday, with temperatures expected to reach 45.5 C (114 F).
In the nearby state of New Mexico, a pair of fast-moving wildfires abetted by the blistering heat have killed two people, burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed 500 homes, according to authorities. Heavy rains could help temper the blazes, but thunderstorms on Thursday were also causing flash flooding and complicating firefighting efforts.
All told, nearly 100 million Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings on Thursday, according to the federal government’s National Integrated Heat Health Information System.
