With almost 200 million people affected, the heat wave in Europe is spreading towards the East and another phenomenon is expected in the coming days

After storms that were also unprecedented in their strength during the night from Saturday to Sunday in the north of France and Belgium, which helped to lower temperatures, the hot air masses that sustain these episodes moved to Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland or the Balkan countries.

In total, according to estimates by the AFP agency, in recent days up to 191 million Europeans lived with daytime temperatures above 35 degrees, many of them in regions very little accustomed to heat.

The World Health Organization estimates that since June 21 there have been excess deaths in Europe of more than 1,300 people. He estimates that these deaths are attributable to excessive heat.

This heat wave, whose official start is set for June 21, is the most severe since there are reliable records in Europe, and according to the scientific community, “it would have been virtually impossible” so early in summer without the climate crisis. Maximum temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic for any time of the year and for June in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

The head of the World Health Organization, Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote in “Europe is the continent that warms the fastest,” he added. A kind of divine justice, because it has also been the Europeans who They have been warming the planet for longer.

One of the usual topics of conversation in recent days in Brussels is the fact that half of Europe It is not made to sustain these temperatures. In Germany, roads have had to be closed because the asphalt melts, In Belgium, the metal tracks on which some trams pass exploded because they could not withstand the expansion caused by the heat.

But, above all, in Brussels, as in much of the north of the continent, homes are designed with the aim that in winter they consume the least amount of heating possible. They try to have as many windows as possible, to ensure that their insulation prevents heat from escaping and they are built, whenever possible, with their facades facing south or southwest because that is the way they have more hours of sun. Mechanisms that help save on heating but in episodes of excessive heat worsen the situation of these homes.

Air conditioning, essential in public buildings in Spain, Portugal, Greece or Italy, in homes, official buildings, schools or hospitals, It is a rare bird in northern Europewhere it is not even common in hospitals and is very rare in restaurants and stores.

The figure of 1,300 deaths is provisional, and authorities fear much higher numbers. The 2003 heat wave, to which the current one is compared, killed more than 15,000 Europeans. And although for now that figure of 1,300 deaths remains, reports in the French press speak of funeral homes in the center of the country overwhelmed by requests for coffins.

In the German city of Cologne this past weekend we had to urgently set up field hospitals because the city’s hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of hospitalized elderly people with health problems caused by heat.

French health authorities said that from the 24th to the 28th alone they estimate more than 1,000 deaths due to heat. That’s only in four days and only in France, so the figure of 1,300 at the European level is probably a very conservative estimate. Spain estimates about 800 deaths additional in the last week.

European meteorological services estimate that In between 10 and 15 days the second great heat wave will arrive, again with temperatures around 40 degrees in the north of the continent. Poland, eastern Germany or Czechia They touched 42 degrees on Sundayall with historical records.