World News | A Heat Wave Named Cerberus Has Southern Europe in Its Jaws, and It's Only Going to Get Worse
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Tourists in central Athens huddled under mist machines, and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles and chunks of frozen food, as southern Europeans braced for a heat wave on Thursday, with a warning of severe conditions coming from the European Union's space agency.
Athens, Jul 13 (AP) Tourists in central Athens huddled under mist machines, and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles and chunks of frozen food, as southern Europeans braced for a heat wave on Thursday, with a warning of severe conditions coming from the European Union's space agency.
Emergency measures – including staffing changes, cellphone alerts, and intensified forest fire patrols – were readied or put into effect in several countries as temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe were set to reach 45 degrees Celsius (113F) Friday and into the weekend.
In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were changed for the public sector and many businesses to avoid the midday heat, while air-conditioned areas were opened to the public.
“It's like being in Africa,” 24-year-old tourist Balint Jolan, from Hungary, told the AP. “It's not that much hotter than it is currently at home, but yes, it is difficult.”
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The high-pressure system, which crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa has been named Cerberus, after the three-headed dog in ancient Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the underworld. It is being tracked by the European Space Agency.
“Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heat wave, with temperatures expected to climb to 48 degrees Celsius on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe” the agency said Thursday.
In the Arctic, a record high temperature of 28.8 degrees Celsius (83.8 degrees F) was measured at Slettness Fyr on the northern tip of the Norway, Norwegian meteorologists said Thursday.
This tops a previous record from July 1964 when the thermometer reached 27.6 degrees Celsius (81.7 degrees F).
The United Nation's World Meteorological Organisation on Monday said global temperatures recorded in early July were among the hottest on record. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)