Europe heatwave: Swiss nuclear reactor shuts down amid soaring temperatures
Spain reported two fatalities from a wildfire in Catalonia, while France confirmed two heatwave-related deaths and 300 hospitalizations.
Italy issued red alerts for 18 cities, and a Swiss nuclear reactor reduced operations due to high river water temperatures.
Spain experienced their hottest June on record, with meteorologists describing the current heatwave as unusually early and exceptional.
Scientists link the extreme temperatures and rising global heat to greenhouse gas emissions, noting that last year was the planet's hottest on record.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
UK weather: Forecast for July revealed - after England's warmest June on record
We've just had the warmest June on record for England and the second-warmest June for the UK, but will July be similar? It was certainly a hot and humid start across the South East of England, with 34.7C (94.5F) seen at St James's Park in London yesterday. That's the UK's highest temperature of the year so far but a long way off the highest recorded in July, which is the national record of 40.3C (104.5F) seen at Coningsby on 19 July 2022. 1:58 The rest of this week will bring fresher and cooler conditions overall, with daytime temperatures widely below average on Sunday and Monday. The weather will turn more unsettled too - especially over the weekend - with spells of rain for most. It'll also be windy at times. From the middle of next week, it looks like pressure will build from the South West, settling things down again. Temperatures are likely to climb as well, potentially becoming very warm or hot again towards the middle of the month depending on the exact position of high pressure. 1:40 Looking further ahead, there is a lot of uncertainty for the last two weeks of July, with computer models showing a range of options. Farmers and gardeners will be hoping for some decent rain after the second-driest spring on record for England and the sixth driest for the UK. Some parts of northern England are already in drought conditions, other areas may well follow. Recent Julys have delivered a range of weather. July 2022 saw extreme heat, with the UK recording its highest-ever temperature. July 2023 brought notable rain, with some areas seeing more than twice the average. Last year, temperatures ended up being below average after the coldest start to July since 2004.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
China's north and west on alert after sweeping rains trigger deadly floods
BEIJING, July 3 (Reuters) - China's north and west braced for flash floods and landslides on Thursday as annual 'Plum Rains' left a trail of destruction and prompted the mobilisation of thousands of rescue workers to pull people from floodwaters. Red alerts were issued tracing the rains as they moved from the southwestern province of Sichuan through the northwestern province of Gansu, and up to the northeastern province of Liaoning. State media said over 1,000 rescue workers were dispatched to the town of Taiping in central China's Henan province on Wednesday, after torrential rains caused a nearby river to burst its banks, killing five people in a flash flood and leaving three others missing. By Thursday morning, some trains into the capital Beijing had been suspended, while one of the capital city's airports saw flight delays and cancellations late on Wednesday and into the early hours. Extreme rainfall and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for policymakers as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions and wreak havoc on China's $2.8 trillion agricultural sector. Economic losses from natural disasters exceeded $10 billion last July, when the 'Plum Rains' - named for their timing coinciding with plums ripening along China's Yangtze River during the East Asia monsoon - typically reach their peak. In China's southwestern province of Guangxi, several buildings slid down hillsides over the last two days after their foundations gave way in waterlogged soil, local media reported. In contrast, the national meteorological centre forecast scorching heat along the country's eastern seaboard.
Times
7 hours ago
- Times
Foreign grass and ‘wetter water' may future-proof Wimbledon
Drought-tolerant grass could be trialled at Wimbledon to cope with warmer weather, the tournament's head of horticulture has said. The Championships recorded the hottest opening day ever on Monday as temperatures reached 32.3C, before climbing to 34.2C on Tuesday, only 1C shy of the highest temperature ever recorded at the All England Club. Neil Stubley, the club's head of horticulture and courts, is responsible for the 50,000 plants decorating the grounds as well as for its 18 courts, which are 100 per cent rye grass cut to 8mm each day. • Behind the scenes at Wimbledon: strawberries, Pimm's and 12,000 petunias He suggested that fewer hydrangeas, some foreign grass seeds and 'wetter water' could be used to combat the longer heatwaves predicted thanks to climate change. 'At the moment, those short bursts [of heat] are quite easily manageable. Whatever comes in the future, who knows? The predictions we are very mindful of and with all the research that we do,' he said. Stubley referred to a predicted drought in 2012, which led to a lasting change in the types of plants his 20-strong team position around the ground, even though the drought did not happen. 'We actually made a conscious effort that the hydrangeas, and those types of flowers we've used historically here that actually do need a lot of water to survive — if you look at the grounds over the last 10 to 15 years, although they're still in areas, there's a lot less of them.' He added: 'All the research that we do with our grasses, we're now selecting grasses that are more wear-tolerant, more drought-tolerant grasses that we can use in the UK that have been used elsewhere.' The club has a partnership with the Sports Turf Research Institute to test various grass types in different climates, including at one of the institute's research facilities in Australia. Stubley added that although sports grounds were exempt from hosepipe bans for the safety of the players, he was always conscious about saving water. He would not put a figure on how many litres were used to keep the grass courts and plants in pristine condition as it fluctuates depending on rainfall each year, but asked whether the club was affected by rising water bills, he said: 'Absolutely. And again, as part of our research, we are looking at how do we better water conserve. We have a wetting agent programme, which essentially is something that we can spray into the soil. It sounds like a weird term, but it makes water wetter.' He said the wetting agent reduced the surface tension of water and so helped it to penetrate the soil more easily. 'We can adjust that so that actually a plant root can tap into that water,' he said. 'So when you think the soil is really, really dry, our grasses can still get water that's maybe not available to other plants.' Each of his 30 championships had brought different weather patterns, Stubley said. Rain today postponed the start of play to 11.45am, delaying Sonay Kartal's match against the Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova. The decision to close the roof on Centre Court is made by the referees, who give the order to protect the courts only from rain or when it gets too dark. Stubley said that the temperature and humidity could affect the grass surface and delay playing conditions. '[On Tuesday night] they put the roof on. It had been a dry day, the court surface is dry, so once it's closed and the air comes on, they can pretty much start straight away because the atmospheric conditions are perfect for the grass,' he said. 'Now, if you had the roof open and it rained and you pulled the cover and there's a bit of moisture on the surface … Then there's a time frame depending on how much moisture is on the surface, how quickly that air conditioning can evaporate that moisture to give you that playing surface. 'Once it's dry and it's ready for play, then there will be some nuances because again, you won't have an airflow in there, so you won't get what you get out in the breeze. The ball would move slightly different. The same with the surface as well. There are very, very small natural characteristic changes that most people wouldn't notice [but] at the elite level you would.'
