Extreme heat wave across Europe fuels wildfires in France, Greece, drought in Hungary

Temperatures soared across much of Europe on Sunday, with firefighters battling massive blazes and droughts raising alarms in multiple countries as residents battle to stay cool.

Large parts of Europe have been hit by prolonged heat and drought, lowering river levels and raising concerns about water supplies, river transport and power generation.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

An extreme heatwave has also hit Israel.

The Israel Meteorological Service said Saturday that the highest temperature of the day was recorded in the Jordan Valley at 45.2°C (113°F), with Tiberias hitting a high of 42.5°C (109°F) and Jerusalem maxing out at a relatively cool 36.1°C (97°F), with a slight rise in temperatures expected on Sunday.

The Jordan Valley and the eastern flank of the country stretching from Eilat to Metula are under an extreme heat warning issued by the IMS, while the rest of the country is under moderate and mild heat warnings.

In nearby Greece, firefighters continued to battle multiple wildfires on Sunday believed to have devastated swaths of forest and agricultural land, with the prime minister warning of “extremely difficult” days ahead.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece had faced “extreme weather conditions and winds” that often reached 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hour.

“When the winds blow with such force, even the dozens of aircraft we have at our disposal cannot operate safely,” he wrote on Facebook. “There are moments when nature and the intensity of weather phenomena surpass any human planning and any operational capability.”

Nearly 500 firefighters were battling blazes around the popular coastal village of Porto Germeno, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Athens, the fire department said.

They were also attempting to keep the fire from approaching the western outskirts of Athens after it scaled a mountain overnight.

Some 100 firefighters were fighting another blaze in Aigialia in the northern Peloponnese. A new fire broke out late Saturday on the Ionian Sea island of Cephalonia.

Earlier this week, fires on the islands of Crete and Paros affected another 6,000 hectares according to The National Observatory’s climate tracker meteo.gr. Three firefighters died this week in the line of duty, two in Crete and one in the Peloponnese.

Over in France, a vast wildfire near Bordeaux, which scorched an area four times the size of Paris and forced 224,000 people to evacuate, remained contained Sunday but was still burning.

Hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, a newer blaze in Provence had stopped advancing overnight but was not yet contained. About 3,000 firefighters remained deployed across the two fronts, extinguishing hot spots, cutting firebreaks and securing areas of burned forest as high temperatures and wind threatened to breathe new life into smoldering embers.

The fire in the Gironde region burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) in just 10 days before authorities declared its advance stopped over the weekend.

“The fire is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,” the Gironde prefecture said Sunday, using the French firefighting term for a blaze that has been contained within its perimeter.

The region remained under France’s highest red forest-fire alert. Dry conditions and soaring temperatures in Bordeaux, along with afternoon winds, risked rekindling flames.

And Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said Sunday that Hungary faces a critical five days, as the drying out of the Danube forces the country’s sole nuclear power plant to shut for the first time in over four decades, with a new heat wave looming.

Hungary’s 2 gigawatt Paks power plant, which runs four Russian-built reactors, was operating at just over 10% of its total capacity on Sunday after the Danube, whose waters it uses as a coolant, fell to a record low.

The water authority was projecting that the level of the river, which flows from Germany to the Black Sea, would drop further in the coming days.

“We are facing the most critical five days ahead,” Magyar said in a Facebook video. “Tomorrow, the Paks power plant will not be generating, while the hottest, 40°C days are ahead.”

“The power grid, our public services and ourselves will all come under enormous strain,” said Magyar, who has warned that Paks could remain idle for weeks.

Falls in water levels have also disrupted shipping and tourism in Hungary and triggered water-use restrictions in more than 100 cities and villages, including on the outskirts of Budapest, according to government records.

Magyar reiterated a call for companies, public institutions, local governments and households to significantly reduce or reschedule electricity use during evening peak hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Meanwhile South Korea registered its highest temperature since records began more than a century ago on Sunday, as authorities warned people to “immediately” stop all outdoor activities in affected areas.

The southeastern city of Yangsan saw the temperature reach 42.5°C (109°F) at 1:26 pm, the Korea Meteorological Administration said on its website.

Yangsan has been the epicenter of the ongoing heatwave, where temperatures exceeded 40°C for a fifth consecutive day on Sunday, while many other cities including Daegu and Busan are seeing temperatures climb into the high 30s.

People flocked to air-conditioned shopping malls or cafes to escape the blistering temperatures, an AFP reporter saw. More than 20 localities were under emergency heat wave alerts on Sunday — a new warning category introduced this year to better address rising temperatures.

Scientists warn that extreme weather events such as heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of human-induced climate change.

Adding to the extreme weather is the return this year of El Nino — a natural climate phenomenon that warms Pacific Ocean surface temperatures and typically occurs every two to seven years.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

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