Europe facing strain on resources and services due to heatwaves

Large parts of western Europe, especially Britain and France, will be sweltering under another heatwave this Thursday as countries feel the strain on resources, the economy and services.

Forecasters are predicting the mercury to rise as high as 38 Celsius in central and southeast England, falling just short of the August record of 38.5 C, set in 2003.

This will be the country’s fifth heatwave this summer.

The Met Office said earlier this week that only average conditions were needed for the rest of August to beat last year’s record for the hottest year.

For a country that’s largely not equipped to deal with these levels of heat, it’s been a particularly uncomfortable few weeks. Air conditioning is a rarity outside of shops and offices.

Working has been particularly difficult in hospitals, where nurses have been known to collapse from heat exhaustion, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

“When nursing staff are collapsing, feeling dizzy, sick or even being admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot handle the heat, it shows just how badly they are being failed,” said RCN chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger.

The bulk of the country is now officially in drought, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment to mitigate, all of whom have to look for mitigations both in the short-term and in the long-term in the face of human-caused climate change.

Most of France on orange alert

In France, the heatwave has placed 80 départements under orange alert until Friday, as the government estimates these successive extreme heat events this summer could cost between 10 and 15 billion euros.

Except for part of the northeast, three Pyrenean départements, Lozère and Haute-Loire (under yellow alert), the rest of France is under orange alert with another day of very high heat. This heatwave episode “is reaching its peak on Thursday and Friday,” estimates Météo-France.

The highest temperatures will be recorded from Centre-Val de Loire to Nouvelle-Aquitaine, where highs will range “between 38 and 40°C, or even a bit more at peak points. In Île-de-France they will be close to 38°C,” it said.

Access to water is also on the agenda given this extremely hot and dry summer.

“Our first priority remains obviously drinking water supply, which is already under strain in several areas, more specifically today in 50 French départements,” said Monique Barbut, the Minister for Ecological Transition.

“More than 40,000” people are affected by tap water cutoffs, according to the government.

Europe is the planet’s fastest-warming continent and in some places is ill-equipped to deal with hot weather. Repeated heatwaves have fuelled a historically hot summer of drought and wildfires, and contributed to the deaths of thousands of people so far.

Scientists blame growing heatwaves on human-caused climate change.