Europe hit by a heat wave ‘omega block’. 18 dead in France. Among them are children

The temperature in Bordeaux, a western French province, rose to 41.9 degrees Celsius, breaking the record set last August. In Poitiers in central France, it reached 41.2 °C. In San Sebastian, in the traditionally colder north of Spain, the temperature was set to reach 40 °C, more than double the city’s historical average for June 22. An April report by the World Meteorological Organization showed that Europe is warming more than twice as fast as the global rate. Emergency services failed to resuscitate two children aged two and four, whose mother found them unconscious in a car in front of the house, said the prosecutor in Carpentras, in the south-east of France.

Three elderly people, aged between 80 and 95, died over the weekend in the Bordeaux region from health problems caused by a heat wave, a local government official said.

“Swim only in supervised areas,” French civil protection service spokesman Jerome Boulanger said after 13 drownings were reported from Sunday to Monday.

The heat wave hitting large parts of Europe is known as the Omega block because it is shaped like a Greek letter, with a bulge of hot air in the middle and cooler air on each side.

“From North Africa, or the Sahara, warm air comes in and it moves very slowly. That’s why we have this intense heat,” said Clair Barnes, an extreme climate researcher at Imperial College London.

Britain’s National Met Office said the four-day heatwave could push temperatures above 39°C in some places and easily break the June record set in 1957 and 1976. Just a few weeks ago, Britain broke its May temperature record. Paris should also record the highest temperature for June, with temperatures reaching 38.4 °C, according to preliminary data from Meteo-France.

“We are seeing temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees above normal for this time of year, and in some northern areas even more than 10 degrees above average,” said Ruben del Campo, spokesman for Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET.

Italy has also issued red heat wave warnings for 12 cities. Utility company Iren has doubled worker shifts and added generators to deal with sporadic power outages in Turin.

Birds that build nests on roof eaves are particularly affected by the unusually high temperatures, said Romaine de Jaegere, founder of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Animals Living in the Wild at the Temploux Sanctuary in Belgium.

“Temperatures on the roofs can sometimes reach 50, even 60 degrees Celsius. Therefore, they prefer to jump rather than literally be cooked in their nests,” she said, adding that the shelter received 150 animals in the last three days.