Portugal braces for high temperatures in new heatwave

LISBON: Parts of Portugal have been placed on red alert due to high temperatures forecast for the coming days, after being relatively spared from the recent heatwave in Europe. The country's IPMA weather agency said the Lisbon and Setubal regions on the coast will be on red alert for high temperatures on Thursday. That will be extended on Friday to the Leiria and Coimbra areas further north, where temperatures could hit 44°C in places. An orange alert was imposed on Wednesday for four inland regions, including Evora, where 41°C could be reached, the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) said.
The second-highest warning will be extended to all regions not on red alert, it added. 'During this period of very hot weather, the most notable element is its duration, which should be for at least a week,' the IPMA said in a statement on Tuesday night. Coastal regions will be hotter due to a lack of sea breeze, while night-time temperatures may not fall below 24-28°C for several nights, it added.
The recent heatwave was the most severe ever recorded in Europe, and would have been 'virtually impossible' in June without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said. All-time temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland. France faced record-breaking average temperatures, with the country experiencing its highest-ever night-time temperatures.
Meanwhile, storms that followed an intense European heatwave killed one person in Romania and another in Austria, authorities said on Wednesday. Storms lashed parts of Romania including the capital Bucharest, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, flooding some basements and homes and tearing down trees.
Footage released by the emergency services showed them clearing tree branches from cars and people wading through waist-high water. In Ganeasa, just outside of Bucharest, a person was found dead inside a car struck by a falling tree, they said.
Storms have also lashed Austria, causing landslides in Tyrol province and elsewhere since Sunday. A man died on Tuesday after being hit by a falling branch in Perg district in Upper Austria province, police said. The 26-year-old was driving his quad, together with his partner, when a roadside tree branch — battered by a storm — broke off and hit him, police said. Storms have followed a severe heatwave that lasted more than a week and broke temperature records across Europe. Experts say climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
The recent heatwave that roasted Europe marked Austria's longest-ever in June, with temperatures exceeding previous highs by 1.4°C on average, the national weather agency said on Wednesday. 'What is remarkable about these new June records is that they don't surpass the old ones by just a few tenths of a degree,' said climatologist Alexander Orlik of GeoSphere Austria in a statement. Depending on the region, from 10 to 14 days temperatures reached at least 30°C below 800 metres of altitude, the service said. 'Such conditions had never occurred nationwide in June before,' Orlik added. — AFP