Portugal and Spain endure scorching heatwave temperatures

Europe’s heatwave gripped Spain and Portugal on Friday as governments checked for forest fires, a Budapest game reserve fed its animals iced snacks and a Finnish supermarket invited customers to sleep over to stay cool.

Summer has brought drought and forest fires as far apart as Britain and Greece, where scores of people died, and Sweden warned of forest fires on Friday.

Hot air from North Africa has caused the most severe heatwave since 2003 in Iberia.

Portugal’s civil protection agency reported in excess of 420 firefighters putting out or checking fire alerts in the north and centre. Fires typically flare late in the day when the weather is hottest.

Respect urged as Ankara takes case against Turkish Cypriot paper

---

German centre faces new pressure from political fringes

---

Myanmar says Rohingya are returning, but evidence is thin

---

Family of ex-Ireland table tennis star issue plea after death

---

Spanish and Portuguese temperatures will remain above 40 degrees at least until Sunday and could rise two or three degrees. That could push them above Europe’s record high of 48 degrees set in Athens in 1977.

The record in Spain and Portugal is just over 47 degrees. In Portugal, local media said temperatures could beat Death Valley in California, one of the world’s hottest places.

Parts of Portugal’s parched southern Alentejo region are forecast to hit 47 degrees. The country is on alert to prevent a repeat of its worst fires in history last year when 114 people died.

Never this hot

Francois Jobard, a forecaster for Meteo France, said the hot air mass from north Africa could cause temperatures in Portugal and Spain of 45 degrees until Saturday and perhaps hotter.

Last month, wildfires killed at least 91 people in Greece.

“I don’t want to say anything bad but . . . while I was watching TV, I thought the same could happen here . . . I’m praying it doesn’t,” said Eva Stigliano, a Greek tourist visiting Portugal for the third time. “I’ve been here in the summer but it has never been this hot.”

Lisbon’s temperature reached 43 degrees.

Spanish authorities issued a heatwave warning for most of central Spain, expected to last until Sunday with temperatures of more than 42 degrees in some parts of Andalusia and Extremadura.

Two men died of heat stroke in the southeastern region of Murcia, Cadena Ser radio station reported on Wednesday.

A branch of the K-Supermarket chain in Helsinki’s Pohjois-Haaga district has invited 100 customers to sleep in its air-conditioned store on Saturday.

Finland’s August average is 19 degrees but temperatures approached 30 degrees this week and few have air conditioning at home. A store manager told the state broadcaster that beer sales would end at 9pm local time. As usual though snacks would be available.

In Germany, state rail operator Deutsche Bahn said it was offering free water to passengers in case of delays and would keep air conditioning running on its trains even when they are empty.

Animal crackers

Tourists took shelter under umbrellas outside the Louvre Museum in Paris and ignored No Bathing signs to paddle in the fountains.

“We’re here for two days, so we’re going for it,” said David Jones from England, cooling off by the fountains with his wife.

Martina Ihrig, an office worker from Germany, said she was delaying visiting the Eiffel Tower with her three daughters until evening.

“It’s too hot to visit it now,” she said.

In Switzerland, mountain railways reported booming business as city dwellers fled to the Alps. Fishery authorities in the canton of Zurich were combing creeks to rescue fish from suffocation as streams dry up or oxygen levels plunge.

The Swiss army let soldiers wear shorts and T-shirts instead of standard uniforms.

The small Budakeszi game reserve outside the Hungarian capital Budapest said it was helping its animals cope with the heat with iced fruit and a diet with less meat and more nutrients.

In another sign of drought, water levels in the Danube River in Budapest are about to fall to a level that will expose a small outcrop called Dearth Rock that is almost always underwater, said the National Water Management Authority.

In Scandinavia, temperatures hit records until a few days ago. In Sweden July was a record month and wildfires burnt in parts of the country.

Authorities in Sweden and Poland warned against swimming due to a bloom of toxic algae spreading caused by hot weather. – Reuters