France Faces Hottest Day On Record And 40 People Drowned Amid Heatwave
France faced its hottest day on record Tuesday as its prime minister said 40 people had passed away from drowning.
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French people are reportedly swimming in unsupervised regions amid the heat, with some passing away, according to The Guardian. French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu said the majority of the dead were young in a statement Tuesday. Germany has also suffered five dead from swimming accidents, according to officials. Both countries continue to have far fewer households with air conditioning (AC) than the U.S.
“There is a tragic scourge of drownings,” France’s Lecornu said. “The latest figures we’ve received are 40 deaths since 18 June. Most of the victims are young people.”
Regions of western France have faced over temperatures of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, according to The Guardian.
The amount of AC units in France sits at about 25% of households, France24 reported in June. As for Germany, the percentage was at 19%, according to a 2024 report from Clean Energy Wire. Meanwhile, over nine in 10 U.S. households are equipped with AC, according to the U.S. Census Bureau
The French prime minister said the heat is nothing like the country has seen in recent times. “We’re experiencing an episode of exceptional intensity,” Lecornu said. “Every day and every night, local and national temperature records are being broken.” (RELATED: FIFA Could Be A Nightmare For Host Cities)
The heat levels surpassed all formal measurements since they began being recorded nationally in France, the national weather service Meteo France said Tuesday on X. The organization reported that the heat reached around 111.7 degrees Fahrenheit in Pissos, France. The Guardian noted that the country began keeping records in 1947.
The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, major centers for tourism, announced that they were cutting operating hours due to safety concerns coming from high temperatures.
Some 1,350 schools also closed Monday in France. Two children, a four-year-old and a two-year-old, were discovered deceased in their family vehicle, prosecutor Helene Mourges said, according to The Guardian. She said heat was being considered as a potential cause.
Paris region officials suggested that locals work from home when possible and not use the rail system. “The transport network comes under severe strain in periods of extreme heat … railways cannot withstand temperatures above 50 degrees,” Valérie Pécresse of the Ile-de-France are told journalists, according to the outlet.
The root cause of the heat is a weather pattern from Africa called an Omega block due it being shaped like the Greek letter, Clair Barnes, an extreme weather and climate research associate at London’s Imperial College, explained to Reuters. It features a bulge of hot air in the middle surrounded by cooler air to either side, according to the scientist.
“It’s drawing warm air up from north Africa, from the Sahara, and that’s why we have this really intense heat,” Barnes said. “It’s very slow moving and it means there’s kind of no wind, no breeze for respite.”
Some English schools closed early Tuesday in anticipation of a heat wave, The Guardian reported.
The vast majority of Spain was under high alert Tuesday as alerts warned of “extraordinary danger” for certain areas, including near Cordoba, according to the outlet.
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