Several absolute temperatures were also shattered in France on Saturday, with mercury rising above 40 degrees in some places. This was particularly the case in the southwest and west, where thunderstorms are expected in the evening. In this way, the heat period gradually ends.
The Meteorological Service set absolute records at Biarritz (42.9°), Cape Ferret (41.9°) and at Biscaros (41°, as it was in 1968). The symbolic 40-degree limit was also achieved elsewhere in western France, such as the province of Deux-Sèvres (Niort), Charente-Maritime (Rochefort), and Ile-et-Villaine (La Noé-Blanche). It remained in Paris 37 degrees.
For about 45 million French people, the red or orange code still applies due to the heat wave: 11 sections are red, from the Pyrenees Atlantic to Fendi, and 59 are orange. According to Météo-France, records for minimum temperatures have also been broken.
On Sunday, the hottest temperatures will turn east. Expected temperatures are still expected to reach 38 degrees in the northeast.
The heat wave first moved from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula. As a result, Spain still has to deal with several wildfires. One of them has already destroyed 20 thousand hectares in the northwest of the country. For scientists, an increase in the number of heat waves, as well as in their intensity and duration, is a symptom of climate change.
