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 by Staff Writers Stockholm (AFP) July 27, 2019
Nordic countries are experiencing searing temperatures as Europe's record-breaking heatwave moves north, with Norway on Saturday equalling its 1970 record, and many areas recording "tropical nights". Laksfors in northern Norway on Saturday recorded a temperature of 35.6 degrees Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit), equalling the national record set in Nesbyen in 1970, the country's meteorology service said on Twitter, adding however that the Meteorological Institute needed to "double check" that the measuring station was operating properly. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute also said it had recorded "tropical nights" in 20 different locations in southern Norway, meaning that temperatures stayed above 20 degrees throughout the night. The tropical heat was also felt around other parts of the Nordics and in neighbouring Sweden, the most extreme heat headed straight for the country's far north. On Friday the small town of Markusvinsa in the far north recorded a temperature of 34.8 degrees Celsius, the highest mark reached in all of Sweden so far this year. "That's the hottest temperature in the far north since 1945 and the third highest temperature on record," Jon Jorpeland, meteorologist at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), told AFP. Earlier in the week several places in Sweden also experienced "tropical nights". According to Jorpeland, temperatures in the south of Sweden haven't been as extreme and it's not unusual that the mercury reaches 30 degrees a few days a year in the country, even though current temperatures are above average. SMHI has also issued warnings for potential water shortages in August in 15 of the country's 21 counties. The tropical heat was also being felt in other Nordic countries and Heat warnings have been issued in Sweden, Norway and Finland and earlier this week Finnish police even warned motorists to be mindful of moose, who were increasingly crossing roads in search of water to quench their thirst. The World Meteorological Organization on Thursday said forecasts indicated that atmospheric flows would transport the heat from Europe to Greenland "resulting in high temperatures and consequently enhanced melting". Current predictions indicate the resulting melting of ice cooled approach the record losses recorded in 2012, the organisation said, citing scientists from the Danish Meteorological Institute.
Europe heatwave relents as travel chaos causes new pain At its peak on Thursday, the heatwave broke national temperature records in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands while Paris baked in its highest ever temperature of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit). The United Kingdom saw a "provisional" all-time record of 38.7 degrees Celsius (101.7 Fahrenheit) in the university city of Cambridge, the Met Office weather service said. A band of rain and storms moved in, causing some disruption to air travel, while there were severe delays on railways after scorching temperatures damaged infrastructure. Some freak weather was also reported, with cyclists in the Tour de France facing a sudden hail storm that forced organisers to call off the day's racing in the French Alps. Riders were "invited to gather in a tunnel" to shelter from the downpour, the Tour de France said on its website. The county of Lincolnshire in eastern England saw a "heat burst" Thursday evening, with temperatures soaring from 22C to 32C and then back down again to 22C over the course of an hour. "This was due to a thunderstorm collapsing and bringing hot air from aloft down to the surface," the Met Office weather service tweeted. The mercury dived in France with outbreaks of drizzle as state weather service Meteo-France lifted "red" alerts imposed in 20 departments. - Travel havoc - Travellers seeking to make their getaways also faced disruption, with flights at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports were cancelled and delayed -- some by over two hours. Elsewhere in the British capital there was still travel havoc due to rails buckling under the heat and fires breaking out along commuter lines. At Paris's Gare du Nord, an electrical failure halted domestic and international high-speed trains Friday lunchtime, including Eurostar and Thalys services although traffic gradually resumed. Thalys -- which links Paris to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne -- also saw disruption with slow trains amid fears infrastructure could overheat. "Yesterday in the south of France, temperatures on the tracks reached 65 degrees (149 Fahrenheit)," Guillaume Pepy, head of French national rail operator SNCF told BFM TV channel Friday. "You could have fried an egg on the tracks". In Switzerland, train engineers painted rails white to reflect the heat of the sun. - Thirsty moose - Finnish police issued a warning to motorists after a record number of reports of drivers crashing into moose who wandered into the road in search of water. The heat "makes the animals move further for water, and they may cross roads," Captain Joonas Tikka told AFP on Friday. While some Finns tried to escape the heat -- which could exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) this weekend -- others were not deterred from swimming in lakes and the sea, despite an outbreak of poisonous blue-green algae in popular spots. In Paris, with public swimming pools overcrowded, many locals and tourists sought to cool off in public water features, notably the giant fountains at the Trocadero close to the Eiffel Tower. "It is too hot to stay in the city in the daytime, there is nothing to freshen with. So for the kids it's very cool to have this place with water," said Norwegian tourist Yensi. The heatwave has been particularly brutal in the countryside, aggravating fires which have seen thousands of hectares of crops destroyed in northern and central France. Thousands of hectares of land went up in flames in northern France on Thursday, with fires still blazing Friday morning in Normandy. French Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume said Thursday that farmers in worst-affected areas would receive additional Europe-backed funding and the right to graze their animals on land not normally used for agriculture. "It's catastrophic in terms of heat, so we're hoping the weather gets back to normal so that we can have a few flowers," said Jason Augusto, a beekeeper in the Sologne region of northern France.
Beating the heat at Bulgarian mud 'spa' Every summer thousands of locals and tourists flock to an improvised mud-and-lye "spa" on the edge of an open-air salt factory near the Black Sea city of Burgas. Apart from its cooling effects, people also believe there are health benefits from spending time in the basins of pinkish lye water at the site. Lye -- a chemical by-product of the salt making process known for its healing properties -- is found in the water itself giving it a thick, salty consistency. For an entry fee of just one euro you can spend as much time as you like floating around in the pools -- formed from one large lake -- before coating yourself in mud from the water's edge. Previously the "spa" was only popular with locals but has recently had something of a facelift, including new walkways and platforms. The salt mine which owns the site says that it pulls in as many as 4,000 visitors a day. German tourist Gerhard Mueller, 70, says he has become a frequent visitor after the mud helped relieve a pain in his right shoulder. Younger visitors meanwhile hail the mud's beautifying and rejuvenating effect. "It's very nice, your skin feels velvety and it gives you an overall nice feeling," 35-year-old Nataliya Yaneva from Burgas says with a smile, her face totally covered with mud. After the mud dries, people wash it off in the lye basins or opt for a cold plunge in the Black Sea just across the reeds.
End in sight for US heat wave that set temperature records Washington (AFP) July 21, 2019 The United States sweltered in dangerously hot weather on Sunday, with major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington broiling in temperatures that rose into triple digits. An oppressive heat wave stretching from the Midwestern plains to the Atlantic coast had nearly 150 million people struggling to stay cool in stifling heat that set records in a handful of states. By Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service (NWS) said the high temperatures would soon be over, but the severe ... read more
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