Firefighers were on Monday battling to contain a wildfire that forced the evacuation of at least 4,000 people on La Palma in the Canary Islands.
The blaze, which started on Saturday in a wooded area in the north of the Spanish island which is popular with British tourists, has torn through more than 4,600 hectares and burned around 20 houses and buildings.
More than 300 firefighters and nine water-carrying helicopters were continuing to fight the fire this morning, supported by the Spanish military. The cause of the blaze is not yet known, authorities said.
Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands, said that some residents in the Puntagorda and Tijarafe areas had resisted evacuation attempts and urged them to “be responsible” and leave their homes immediately. In Tenerife, a forest fire which broke out on Saturday forced the evacuation of 50 people and destroyed about 60 hectares.
Southern Europe has experienced scorching temperatures in the past week. They were expected to reach 44C in Spain’s Guadalquivir valley on Monday, while a new anticyclone dubbed Charon, after the ferryman of the souls of the dead in Greek mythology, could lift the mercury above 45C in parts of Italy.
Meteorologists in Europe warned the public to brace for a “severe heat storm”.
Europe’s highest recorded temperature of 48.8C, registered in Sicily two years ago, could be exceeded on the Italian island of Sardinia, meteorologists have said. Italy’s health minister, Orazio Schillaci, urged the public and visitors in Rome to stay indoors between 11am and 6pm. Health alerts were in place in 16 cities.
The heatwave is also impacting Turkey, with the mercury reaching 44C in the Antalya tourist destination over the weekend. Greece closed the Acropolis in Athens during the hottest part of the day on Friday to protect tourists.
The US and Asia are also in the grip of high temperatures. Nearly a quarter of the US population is under warnings for extreme heat, stretching from the Pacific north-west, through California and into the South and Florida. In Las Vegas, the heatwave was threatening to break or tie the city’s record high of 47.2C.
China also recorded its hottest ever temperature as the mercury surpassed 52C in the Sanbao township in the north-western Xinjiang region.
The death toll from floods caused by extreme weather in South Korea rose to more than 40 on Monday. Twelve deaths, including three bodies found overnight, occurred in a tunnel in Cheongju, south of Seoul, where 16 vehicles, including a bus, were swamped by a flash flood on Saturday after a river burst its banks.
Despite sweltering temperatures elsewhere, the Met Office predicted that the UK won’t see any hot summer weather until mid-August.
