Maximum temperatures hit 41ºC in Mallorca on Monday and it is proving hotter today and The Foreign Office has issued extreme weather warnings for Britons travelling to Italy, Spain or Greece, advising them to heed local advice but that they won't be compensated if they choose to cancel their trips and today the WHO upgraded its warning.
The heatwave engulfing the northern hemisphere is set to intensify this week, causing overnight temperatures to surge and leading to an increased risk of heart attacks and deaths, the World Meteorological Organization said today.
The WMO warned that the heatwave was in its early phases, saying it expected temperatures in North America, Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean to be above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) "for a prolonged number of days this week as the heatwave intensifies".
The intense heat is forecast to intensify in the next two days and could last into August, the World Meteorological Organisation has said.
"Repeated high nighttime temperatures are particularly dangerous for human health, because the body is unable to recover from sustained heat. This leads to increased cases of heart attacks and death," John Nairn, Senior Extreme Heat Advisor for WMO told reporters in Geneva.
Panu Saaristo from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said that infants, the elderly and people with chronic health conditions are at particular risk.
"The Mediterranean heatwave is big but nothing like what's been through North Africa," said the WMO's Nairn. "It's developing into Europe at this stage. We're in the early phases of this heatwave."
Asked about whether the current heatwave was due to climate change, Nairn described the slow-moving "parked" weather systems as unusual. "These are not your normal weather systems of the past. You have to do climate repair to change it," he said.
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