Pars Today

More than 2,000 people have died in Spain and Portugal in recent weeks amid record-breaking temperatures, accompanied by massive wildfires that have forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

The ongoing heat wave that has engulfed the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Portugal, could last several weeks, according to experts, even as efforts are underway to put out the fires in several European countries.  

More than 1.3 million acres of forest land in Spain, France, and Portugal have been burned by wildfires, with experts warning that the worst is yet to come.

In UK and France, a red alert has been issued due to the extreme heat wave. This is the second heat wave in Western Europe in less than a month.

An emergency means that the situation is so acute that healthy and vulnerable people may get sick or die. A red alert also means widespread disruption to health services, schools, and even nuclear power plants.

According to Spain's Carlos III Institute, a total of 1,047 deaths in the country were reported due to soaring temperatures between July 10 and July 19.

Portugal's director-general of health was quoted as saying by Reuters Tuesday that 1,063 heat-related deaths had occurred from July 7 to July 18.

Scientists and politicians consider this emergency directly related to climate change.

“The situation is much worse than expected, even if we were expecting temperature anomalies with our long-term forecasts,” Jesus San Miguel, Coordinator of the European Union’s EFFIS satellite monitoring service, was quoted as saying by AFP.

San Miguel said there could be worse to come, adding that the hallmarks of global heating were all over this year’s fire season.

“Ignition is caused by people [but] the heat wave is critical, and clearly linked to climate change,” he said. “The fire season used to be concentrated from July to September. Now we are getting longer seasons and very intense fire. We expect climate change to create higher fire conditions in Europe."

ME