Beach-goers watch as wildfire burns in Greece's Halkidiki
:: Vourvourou, Greece
:: July 2, 2025
After days of an intense early heatwave in Europe, the EU's Copernicus says Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average, making extreme heatwaves occur earlier in the year, and persist into later months.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Thousands evacuated as Greek, Turkish wildfires rage
Officials on the southern Greek island of Crete evacuated thousands of people from wildfires, while two people died in neighbouring Turkey as fires took hold in the western province of Izmir on Thursday. About 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of Athens, another fire broke out near the port of Rafina on Thursday afternoon, local officials said. Hot dry weather in Greece -- not unusual for this time of year -- has heightened the risk of a repeat of the summer wildfires that have hit the country in recent years. Turkey, although spared the recent heatwaves that gripped southern Europe, has battled the effects of a long-term drought likely brought on by climate change. On Crete, about 5,000 people were evacuated after a blaze that broke out on Wednesday evening, the president of the regional hotels' association told AFP on Thursday. Yorgos Tzarakis said that about 3,000 tourists and 2,000 residents had been moved, mostly overnight, as a precaution from areas close to the Crete resort town of Ierapetra, in the southeast. He said that most of the tourists had been evacuated to the north of the island. Vice-prefect Yannis Androulakis told Greek broadcaster Mega that officials had ordered the evacuations because water bomber aeroplanes had not been able to reach the affected areas overnight. Strong winds on three active fronts helped the fire progress, said Androulakis, some reaching nine on the Beaufort scale. The inaccessible terrain in Crete, Greece's largest island, has also hampered the work of the firefighters there. - Two dead in Turkey - In Turkey, two wildfires broke out near Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city. In each case, three villages were evacuated. "An elderly, bedridden patient could not be saved," said Salih Uzun, a lawmaker in Izmir for the opposition CHP party, of the blaze close to Odemis. A forest worker in the same area died as he battled the blazes, the country's agriculture minister Ibrahim Yumakli said on X. Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said the main problem had been wind speeds of up to 85 kilometres per hour (53 miles per hour) and their constant changes of direction. "So the intervention from both land and air is seriously challenging," he told reporters, adding that the flames had cut off the main highway from Izmir city. Firefighters backed by fire engines and firefighting aircraft were battling the flames, he added. Both fires in the province, as well as others over the weekend and since controlled, had been caused by power cables, he said. Meteorologist Ismail Kucuk, citing forestry ministry figures, told AFP that "90 percent of forest fires" were due to man-made causes. Power cables in particular posed a risk if not properly maintained, he added. The fire near Athens had already burned five or six houses, one local mayor told ERT public television. Fire service spokesman Vassilios Vathrakoyannis said that around 170 firefighters, 17 firefighting planes, 48 fire engines and seven helicopters were fighting the blaze. Firefighters had evacuated 300 people and rescued 51, he added. But their task could be complicated by the higher temperatures and strong winds forecast in the Athens region in the coming days. - High fire risk in July - The risk of fires was "considerable" in July, the hottest month of the year in Greece, said fire service spokesman Vathrakoyannis. The country recorded its hottest-ever summer in 2024, when 45,000 hectares (110,000 acres) of land burned, according to WWF Greece and the Athens National Observatory. In terms of surface area destroyed, 2023 was the worst on record. Nearly 175,000 hectares were obliterated and 20 people died during heatwaves when temperatures rose in places to 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit). Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem. hec-yap/jj/bc
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
Clouds Are Cool, but Have You Ever Seen One Like This?
The dramatic mass moving ashore one afternoon in Portugal this week looked like something out of a movie: dozens of people who had gathered at a beach to escape an oppressive heat wave stared up at the sky as it inched toward them. Was an alien ship about to emerge? Should someone call Jeff Goldblum? But it was a cloud that stopped people in their track — a 'roll cloud,' to be specific, which more typically form from thunderstorms. In this case, the cloud formed at the intersection of the ocean and the land as a cool, moist air mass moving over the Atlantic Ocean collided with dry, hot air over southwestern Portugal, which, like much of Europe, has been sweltering in a weeklong heat wave. The roll cloud is created by a wave in the atmosphere that causes a rising and sinking motion over adjacent areas, allowing the clouds to form and appear to roll forward. You can see that below in an aerial image, where the crest and trough of the cloud are visible and resemble an ocean wave. Sean Waugh, a severe storms expert with the National Severe Storms Laboratory who typically encounters such clouds as thunderstorms move over the Plains in the United States, compared the clouds to what happens when a rock is dropped in a pond. The cloud is just the leading edge of a ripple in the atmosphere. While the cloud in Portugal occurred in the afternoon, it was most likely a 'morning glory,' a specific type of cloud often associated with roll clouds that more commonly occurs after sunrise in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia. This type of roll cloud can stretch many hundreds of miles long, which is why it was seen up and down much of the central coast of Portugal. The heat wave that has swept Europe this week has led to multiple deaths and helped fuel wildfires in Greece, Turkey and Portugal. High temperatures are expected to spread east in the coming days. Tracking Heat Across Europe See detailed maps of the latest temperature forecasts across Europe.
New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
Extreme Heat Shuts Down Some Nuclear Reactors in Europe
A record-breaking heat wave in Europe is warming up the river water that some nuclear power plants use for cooling, prompting operators to shut down at least three reactors at two separate sites. Late on Sunday, operators shut down one of the two reactors at the Golfech Nuclear Power Plant in southern France after forecasts that the Garonne River, from which it draws water, could top 28 degrees Celsius, or roughly 82 degrees Fahrenheit. The Beznau Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland, near the Aare River near the country's northern border, followed suit, shutting down one of its reactors on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday. Both plants are designed to keep their reactors at safe temperatures by cooling them with river water, which is then pumped back out at higher temperatures. Regulations in both countries require operators to reduce energy production when the rivers get too hot, in order to protect downstream environments. The operator of the Beznau plant, Axpo, said that 'excessive warming of the already-warm river water during hot summer periods is to be prevented in order not to place additional strain on flora and fauna.' In a statement, Axpo confirmed that a limit of 25 degrees Celsius had been exceeded for several days in a row. Other river-cooled nuclear reactors, including one at the Bugey plant in southeastern France, have reduced their power generation. Temperatures across Europe have regularly exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week, though forecasters say relief is on the way over the weekend. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
