Scientists say that heat waves and storms are becoming more intense due to humans driven by climate change.
At least eight people have died throughout Europe as a wave of heat in early summer, much of the continent, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor in a Swiss energy plant.
The authorities in the Catalonia region of Spain said that about 14,000 people were ordered to remain inside due to two forest fires that exploded almost simultaneously in the province of Lleida.
In one of the fires near the city of Cosco, “Firefighters found two people lifeless,” said the fire and emergency service in a statement on Wednesday.
The exact cause of the fire was not clear, but the service said that recent heat, dry conditions and strong winds increased the intensity of the flames.
Tuesday's fire in the Catalonia region burned several farms and affected an area that extended about 40 km (25 miles) before being content, authorities said.
On Wednesday, Spanish officials reported that two more people died due to the heat wave in Extremadura and Córdoba.
Spain is in the middle of an intense heat wave with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places, and several heat records were established for the month of June.
France also experienced its most popular June since 2003.
His energy minister reported two deaths linked to the Heat with another 300 taken to the hospital on Wednesday.
The weather forecast Meteo France said that red alerts remained for several areas of the center of France, and Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of Health and Families, said the authorities should remain attentive.
“In the next few days, we will see the consequences, particularly the most vulnerable, and I am particularly thinking about the elderly,” he said.
Two men over 60 also died of Heat on beaches in Sardinia in Italy, Ansa's news agency reported.
In Germany, temperatures were predicted reached its maximum point at 40 ° C (104f) in some areas, which makes it the hottest day of the year. The fire brigades also approached several forest fires in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony on Wednesday.
Storm warnings issued
Italy, France and Germany have also warned about the risk of powerful storms due to excessive heating in unstable atmospheres.
The violent storms in the French Alps on Monday triggered landslides, interrupting rail traffic between Paris and Milan.
The Swiss uxpo utility closed a reactor at the Beznau Nuclear Plant and was reduced by half in another on Tuesday due to the high river water temperature.
Water is used to cool and other purposes in nuclear plants, and restrictions were expected to continue as temperatures be monitored.
The scientists said that heat waves have arrived earlier this year, increasing temperatures up to 10 ° C (50f) in some regions, since the heating seas encouraged the formation of a heat dome in much of Europe, catching the hot air masses.
Greenhouse gas emissions of burned fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, they said, and deforestation and industrial practices are other contributing factors. Last year he was the most popular on the registered planet.
“Extreme Heat is testing our resilience and jeopardizing the health and life of millions,” Reuters, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, told the Reuters News Agency.
“Our new climatic reality means that we can no longer surprise us when temperatures reach maximum records every year,” he added.
