Fires, drought and storms hit Europe

Firefighters in northeastern Spain are battling forest fires with the help of 30 aircraft today, after a large blaze forced the evacuation of around 1,000 people.

The situation comes after recent heatwaves that have dried out vegetation across much of Europe.

Successive waves of extreme temperatures have pushed thermometers to unprecedented levels in large areas of the continent, causing water shortages, crop damage and thousands more deaths than usual.

According to Reuters, the average temperature in Europe today is 27.5 degrees Celsius, which is 4.2 degrees higher than the average maximum temperature for July 17 in the period 1961-1990.

In France, the drought has worsened every day since late May. A nuclear power plant in the south of the country could be forced to shut down after high temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea made the water too warm to cool the reactors.

In Germany, low water levels on the Rhine River have hampered river transport, leading to increased transport costs. While temperatures have started to drop in some areas, powerful storms have appeared.

Two people have died in central and eastern France. One of the victims is a woman in the Saint-Victurnien area, in the Haute-Vienne department, who died after a tree fell on her.

In the eastern part of the country, in Dolomieu, the body of a man was found in a factory destroyed by fire. According to the AFP agency, the fire was caused by a lightning strike.

French grid operator Enedis confirmed that a total of 53,000 households were left without electricity. The biggest supply problems were recorded in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions in the southeast and Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest of France.

The Spanish meteorological service warned that temperatures will start to rise again on Sunday. In some areas of Andalusia and La Mancha, temperatures of 42 to 44 degrees Celsius are expected, due to the arrival of hot air from North Africa.

A forest fire near Ores, in the northeastern region of Aragon, spread over more than 12,000 hectares on Friday night. Around 300 soldiers are battling it, assisted by helicopters and five firefighting aircraft.

Firefighters are also trying to control blazes near Madrid and in Guadalajara province, where about 1,500 hectares have burned and a children's summer camp has been evacuated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned last week that Europe faces "a deadly few weeks" due to new heat waves forming over the Atlantic Ocean.

Scientists monitoring so-called excess deaths said that during the heatwave in late June, thousands more people died in Europe than usual for this time of year. /Telegraph/ ...