Upravo se najvrućiji, ikada zabilježen srpanjski dan u Velikoj Britaniji bliži kraju. Temperature od 38°C topile su i asfalt na nekim cestama. Na sjeverozapadu Engleske radnici su morali ceste posipati malim šljunkom jer su se gume ljepile za ceste.
U Španjolskoj je dvoje ljudi umrlo od toplotnog udara.
Posljednjih 9 žrtava u Francuskoj umrli su od visokih temperatura i vrućine.
U Nizozemskoj je četverodnevni Nijmegen March otkazan jer su dva sudionika umrla na suncu, a viš od 300 hospitalizirano zbog dehidracije i problema vezanih uz izlaganje suncu.
U Njemačkoj je zabilježena temperatura od 39°C.
Diljem cijele Europe meteorolozi i vlasti upozoravaju ljude da se ne izlažu suncu i da se ne kreću previše po suncu ako nije potrebno.
::IZ MEDIJA::
ap / reuters / afp / bbc
PARIS (AFP) - Much of western Europe sweltered under tropical temperatures, as Britain reported the hottest July day on record and France said nine people may have died because of the weather.
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"Nine deaths have so far been registered which could be due to the heatwave," Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said.
Most of the deaths took place in the southwest of the country, which has been hardest hit, but in the eastern town of Macon a 53-year-old labourer died of hyperthermia after working on the roads in 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) heat.
On Tuesday in The Netherlands, two people died on the opening day of an annual walking event at Nijmegen, and Germany and Spain have also recorded two heat-related deaths each.
Meteorologists in London said that the 36.3 degrees Centigrade recorded south of London made Wednesday the hottest July day since 1911, when records began. The all-time record of 38.5 degrees Centigrade, set in August 2003, still stands.
Local authorities in Britain poured gravel on roads to counter the effects of melting asphalt, and some schools and offices were closed. Lions at a zoo in Colchester were given ice cubes containing blood.
The heatwave recalled the summer of 2003, when more than 35,000 mainly elderly people died across Europe as a result of dehydration and heat stroke, but medical authorities in France and elsewhere said lessons had been learned and a repeat was unlikely.
In France the electricity supplier EDF was buying in energy from neighbouring countries because of the high use of air-conditioning and falling output from hydro-electric and nuclear power stations as a result of low, warm rivers.
The soaring temperatures were likely to fall somewhat from Wednesday evening with the arrival of thunderstorms from the west, but it will remain hot, forecasters in France said. Some 30 departments -- or counties -- issued weather alerts because of the risk of violent storms and flash-flooding.
The head of a French research laboratory said the unusually high temperatures were linked to global warming.
"The rules are changing, there's no doubt about it. This is the start of a process. We can expect heatwaves to be more frequent and more extreme as a result of the general rise in temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions," said Herve Le Treut, director of the National Centre for Scientific Research.
Germany said the exceptional heat had forced up ozone pollution to potentially harmful levels in parts of the country and only storms could clear the air. "We are at the start of a cycle of ozone pollution," said an official at the federal bureau for the environment.
In Belgium, 38 degrees C were recorded in the city of Ghent.
The London underground system, the oldest in the world, was a furnace on Tuesday with a record temperature of 47 C. Bus passengers fared even worse, with temperatures on buses in the City of London, the main financial district, reaching 52 C.
Post je objavljen 19.07.2006. u 22:40 sati.