PARIS, July 18 (Reuters) – France will experience an “extreme heat peak” on its western facade on Monday and temperature records are expected to be broken in many regions, Météo France warned on Monday.
Fifteen departments on the Atlantic coast, from Brittany to New Aquitaine and Occitanie, are still on “heat wave red vigilance” and should be confronted with temperatures reaching or even exceeding 40oC on Monday.
“Temperature records will be broken” in many regions while this day “will mark the culmination of this heatwave episode”, with 51 departments on orange vigilance, underlines Météo France.
In Gironde, a department in heat wave red vigilance and confronted for almost a week with two fires having burned nearly 14,300 hectares of forest, the situation remains difficult.
“Despite the significant land and air resources engaged, the situation is not fixed and the fire progressed overnight,” said the prefecture in a situation update published Monday morning.
Nearly 1,700 firefighters from all over France, supported by six Canadair and three Dash planes are still mobilized to fight against these two “exceptional” fires, which forced nearly 16,000 people to evacuate, recalls the prefecture .
The heat wave currently raging in Europe is not sparing neighboring countries, and Great Britain is also expected to experience an unprecedented heat peak on Monday, with temperatures expected above 40oC for the first time.
In the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish meteorological agency Aemet has placed the provinces of the Basque Country on heat wave red alert, while a large part of the country is on orange alert on Monday.
(Writing by Myriam Rivet, editing by Kate Entringer)
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