Wildfires burn in Turkey and France as early heatwave hits

IstanbulL/Paris/Seville - Firefighters battled wildfires in Turkey and France on Monday as an early heatwave hit the region.

In Turkey, wildfires raged for a second day in the western province of Izmir, fanned by strong winds, Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said, forcing the evacuation of four villages and two town neighbourhoods.

Turkey's coastal regions have in recent years been ravaged by wildfires as summers have become hotter and drier, which scientists say is a result of human-induced climate change.

In France, where temperatures are expected to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, wildfires broke out on Sunday in the southwestern Aude department, where temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), burning 400 hectares and forcing the evacuation of a campsite and an abbey, authorities said.

The fires were under control but not yet extinguished, authorities said on Monday.

Weather service Meteo France put a record 84 of the country's 101 departments on an orange heatwave alert from Monday until midweek. About 200 schools will be at least partially shut over the next three days because of the heat, the Education Ministry said.

Heatwave across Europe

Authorities sent out heat alerts across the region.

Spain is on course for its hottest June on record, the national meteorological service AEMET said, forecasting the peak of the heatwave on Monday.

"Over the next few days, at least until Thursday, intense heat will continue in much of Spain," said Ruben del Campo, a spokesperson for the weather agency.

In Seville, southern Spain, where global leaders were gathering for a United Nations conference, temperatures were expected to hit 42 C.

"It's awful," municipal worker Bernabe Rufo said as he cleaned a fountain. "We need to be looking for shade constantly."

Tourists were also seeking ways to cope with the heat.

"I guess water, water and shade, water and shade," said 51-year-old visitor Nicole Shift, who got up early to enjoy Seville's historic sites before the heat got too intense.

In Italy, the Health Ministry issued heatwave red alerts for 16 cities. Weather website IlMeteo.it said temperatures on Monday would go as high as 41 C in Florence, 38 C in Bologna and 37 C in Perugia.

The Lombardy region, part of Italy's northern industrial heartland, is planning to ban open-air work in the hottest part of the day, heeding a request from trade unions, its president said.

Even in the Netherlands, usually cooler than many other parts of Europe, the Royal Meteorological Institute warned temperatures could reach 35-40 C in parts of the country in the coming days, with high humidity.

Amsterdam extended opening hours at homeless shelters.

Consumers urged to limit water use

In Germany too, heat warnings were in place across large parts of western and southwestern regions on Monday, where temperatures climbed to up to 34 C. Authorities appealed to consumers to limit their use of water. Temperatures were expected to peak by the middle of the week.

The heatwave has lowered water levels on the Rhine River, hampering shipping and raising freight costs for cargo owners, commodity traders said. German and French baseload power prices for Tuesday surged as the heatwave led to increased demand for cooling.

Heat can affect health in various ways, and experts are most concerned about older people and babies, as well as outdoor labourers and people struggling economically.

Globally, extreme heat kills up to 480,000 people annually, surpassing the combined toll from floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, and poses growing risks to infrastructure, the economy and healthcare systems, Swiss Re said earlier this month.

Global surface temperatures last month averaged 1.4 C higher than in the pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said earlier this month.

Scientists say the main cause of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Last year was the planet's hottest on record.

(Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo in Madrid, Alvise Arminelli in Rome, Nina Chestney in London, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam, Rachel More in Berlin; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Janet Lawrence)