Original subtitles

Across America and Europe,

heat waves claim more lives

than any other type of extreme weather event,

making this one of Mother Nature’s most deadly disasters.

Temperatures in places like Saudi Arabia

routinely exceed 40 degrees Celsius

with few ill effects to the population.

But when people in Russia were subjected

to the same extreme heat,

it killed an estimated 56,000 people.

A heat wave occurs when high pressure strengthens

and remains over a region for several days

or up to several weeks.

Under high pressure,

the air sinks toward the surface,

causing the ground to become warm and dry.

This warmer, sinking air creates a dome effect,

trapping high humidity and warm air below,

resulting in a progressive buildup of heat

at the surface.

When Europe experienced scorching temperatures

between July and August 2003,

it resulted in the deaths of an estimated 70,000 people.

During the Russian heat wave of 2010,

as temperatures soared to over 40 degrees Celsius,

the unprecedented hot spell left 56,000 people dead.

But as Europe was struck by yet another heat wave in 2018,

it has forced us to ask:

Are these extreme temperatures

something we are going to have to get used to?

There is no exact definition of a heat wave.

It rather depends on which country you’re in

and where you are.

But the World Meteorological Organization

has a definition that says:

"A heat wave is when there is a maximum daily temperature

"five degrees higher than the local

normal maximum temperature,"

and that’s every day for five days.

Sometimes you can also not just look at temperature

but look at the combination of temperature and humidity.

So heat stress, which is more-- Which affects the human body.

So that would also be a common definition of a heat wave.

It really depends on who is in harm’s way,

how you define the heat wave,

or where your vulnerability lies,

what a heat wave consists of.

For example, a colleague of mine,

when we were talking about the heat wave in Montreal,

and in Montreal, people were dying

with a heat wave where temperatures

were about 35 degrees Celsius.

And he then said, "Well, show me one Indian

who will die at 34 degrees." In Indian cities,

that’s a very average and normal temperature.

So a heat wave in any Indian city

would only be if it’s 45 or higher.

If you look at a weather map,

usually you will see patterns of low pressure

and high pressure around the globe.

You’ll be familiar with those

and the winds blowing around them.

A high-pressure system in the northern hemisphere

is one where the air is circulating clockwise

and sinking in the middle.

A low-pressure system, on the other hand,

is one where it’s circulating anti-clockwise

and rising in the middle.

That’s just the normal way of things.

And those weather patterns move around the globe,

perhaps crossing each place every three days or so.

Sometimes, however, the patterns will get stuck.

And in particular, you can get high-pressure systems

stuck over the continent.

And when that happens, that’s called a blocking high.

And when they stay there for days or possibly even weeks,

they can have a big influence on the local weather

and in particular, in summer,

they can cause heat waves.

Because the centers of high-pressure areas

are usually cloud-free,

when direct sunlight shines through clear blue skies,

daytime temperatures rise further.

One of the biggest hazards of heat waves is to human health.

While no one is truly immune to the effects of a heat wave,

it is often the most vulnerable among us

that will suffer the greatest consequences.

This could be the very old or very young,

the obese or overweight,

or those that have already fallen ill.

It can also increase your risk of dying

from preexisting conditions

like heart and breathing problems.

There will be signs when a body

is not managing to cope with the heat.

You may suffer cramps due to overexertion in hot conditions.

They are not particularly dangerous

but can be the first sign

that you are having trouble with the heat.

Continued exposure to the heat can lead to heat exhaustion.

Body weight will diminish

as excess sweating results in significant losses of fluid.

This causes dehydration.

A lack of blood flow to the vital organs

will also cause the sufferer to experience a mild shock.

If left untreated,

the condition will gradually worsen.

The body’s temperature will continue to rise

and may eventually result in a heatstroke.

Heatstroke, or sunstroke,

is a life-threatening condition.

The sufferer’s natural thermoregulation system

completely shuts down,

causing such severe body temperatures

that brain damage or death may occur.

Ordinarily, human bodies will get rid of heat

by varying the rate and depth of blood circulation,

evaporating water from the skin through sweating

or, as a last resort, panting.

Blood, which carries a lot of heat,

is pumped away from your internal organs

and towards the outside of your body.

Blood vessels widen to accommodate the increased flow.

That’s why your skin tends to get red when you’re hot.

Your sweat glands begin to release water

onto the surface of the skin.

Humans have 2 to 4 million sweat glands

and can release more than 1 liter of sweat per hour.

Sweating cools you down

because the heat energy needed

to evaporate the water from your skin

is extracted from the blood beneath its surface.

But if you fail to replace the liquids

that have been expelled through sweat,

you will start to produce less sweat,

causing a decrease in the cooling effect.

Also, if the weather is very hot and humid,

you won’t be able to sweat fast enough to cool your body down.

We define heat waves in terms of extreme temperature,

but actually, how people feel it

will also depend on the local humidity.

If it’s very humid and damp, it’s more difficult to sweat,

and that makes you feel the heat worse than if it’s dry.

The elderly don’t have very efficient circulatory systems,

and so it is harder for them to regulate their temperature.

They are also less mobile and may find it harder

to move to a cooler room or fetch a cold drink.

Old lady, lives alone, she hasn’t eaten for two days

because she doesn’t feel like eating because of the heat.

She’s not drinking enough,

she’s sleeping at night with a 12-tog duvet.

It’s absolute classic. The radiator was on in her flat

because she feels the cold.

Old people get neuropathy in their fingers and feet,

and the extremities do feel cold,

but they cook like we all do.

Babies and young children sweat

far less than adults,

limiting their body’s ability to cool itself.

But they also generate more heat through exercise.

Overexertion on a hot day

can also cause severe problems.

And when these blistering temperatures continue

over several days,

night temperatures may not cool

as they normally would.

Every day, there’s a maximum in temperature

during the afternoon and a minimum temperature at night.

And in a heat wave, that’s also the case.

But if the minimum temperature during the night

is not cool enough that people’s bodies

can get better from the heat they suffered during the day,

that makes the effect even worse

than it would have been otherwise.

Humidity is very important

in the way heat wave affects the human body.

So if a heat wave just consists of high temperatures

but the air is very dry, then the human body can sweat

and gets cooled down through that.

And so the body is much better able to deal with the heat,

as if it was a humid heat wave

where the air is already very humid,

so sweating is much less effective

than it would be in dry surroundings.

Temperatures in cities

can often be 6 degrees Celsius higher

than the surrounding countryside.

This is because tarmac and concrete store heat

and gradually release it at night,

causing what is known as the urban heat island effect.

Fortunately, many cities contain

public air-conditioned spaces

such as local libraries or recreation centers,

allowing people a safe place to escape the heat.

Poor air quality in the stagnant, hot atmosphere

that accompanies a heat wave

can lead to breathing difficulties

in vulnerable people.

That irritates the lung linings when we breathe it in,

so that means people who have

preexisting respiratory conditions...

Asthma, COPD.

...they’re possibly going to feel some effects today.

Heat waves occur all over the globe,

with some areas of the world

experiencing these extreme weather events

on a yearly basis.

But Third World countries suffer disproportionately,

especially the poor,

as they are often unable to cultivate crops,

find clean water or get proper medical attention.

In a heat wave,

high temperatures are maintained

over a period of several days

and don’t drop much at night.

In the developed world, this leads

to an increased use of air conditioning,

leading to spikes in electricity demand

and power shortages.

This increased demand can cause substations to overheat

and shut down completely,

cutting off air conditioning to thousands of people

at the time they need it most.

If a heat wave continues for a longer period,

roads can also be affected.

The heat causes them to buckle, and the tarmac may even melt.

A prolonged heat wave may also lead to conditions of drought.

Droughts can affect vast territorial regions

and large population numbers.

They also have environmental impacts

that increase the risk of other natural disasters,

such as fire.

In the heat, forests and shrubs as well as agricultural areas

can become very dry, making it possible

for forest or brush fires to start.

Without rain, these fires can spread over large areas

and rage for days,

causing loss of life and damage or destruction of crops,

as well as homes and property.

An area where vegetation has been killed off

through lack of water or wildfires

is then much more susceptible to flash floods,

landslides and debris flow.

Continuous heat and drought conditions

take a major toll on soil health,

causing the earth to dry up and crack.

Strong winds can then pick up the loose, cracked soil

and carry it for hundreds of kilometers.

With the topsoil removed,

the fertility of agricultural land is greatly reduced.

In the United States,

heat waves are responsible for more deaths per year

than hurricanes, lightning,

tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined.

In the past 30 to 40 years,

there has been an increasing trend

in high-humidity heat waves,

which involve extremely high nighttime temperatures.

In recent years, we see

a statistically significant increase

in the number of heat waves around the globe,

but also in the intensity of heat waves.

As global warming takes effect,

the average temperature’s warming up,

but also the extremes are warming up.

So in particular, a heat wave

that only would’ve occurred perhaps once in a hundred years

is becoming more and more frequent.

For example, something in the 1950s that would have been,

just say, 1 percent chance of happening

is now about 10 percent chance of happening.

And we think by 2050, it’ll be just normal.

One factor in what causes heat waves

is what we would call external forcing.

And external forcing is the amount of greenhouse gases

in the atmosphere, and thus the overall global temperature.

And when global temperatures are increasing,

then also local temperatures are increasing.

And so we see a higher frequency in heat waves

and a lower frequency in cold waves.

There have been many deadly heat waves in recent times.

More than 220 people died in North America in July 2006,

as temperatures climbed to more than 48 degrees Celsius.

At its height, a peak temperature

of 54 degrees Celsius was recorded in South Dakota.

In Europe, the deadliest single heat wave

ever to strike was in 2003.

During its summer months,

the entire continent suffered

exceptionally hot, dry weather.

Temperatures reached over 40 degrees Celsius,

with the death toll being estimated

at over 30,000 people.

Using information collected from ice cores and tree rings,

scientists have even worked out that the summer of 2003

was Europe’s hottest since 1540,

nearly 500 years ago.

France was badly hit,

with estimates putting the death toll at around 14,000.

One of the biggest killers during the heat wave

was stagnant air, which accumulated pollutants

and other toxins, causing respiratory failure.

Dehydration and heat accounted

for thousands of premature deaths,

particularly older citizens and the very young.

The severe heat wave in Europe

began in June 2003

and continued until mid-August.

Temperatures were 20 to 30 percent higher

than the seasonal average,

and extended over a large portion of the continent,

from northern Spain to the Czech Republic,

and from Germany to Italy.

Even nightly temperatures were higher

than the average summer midday highs.

Extreme maximum temperatures of 35 to 40 degrees Celsius

were recorded on various occasions

during the month of July to August

in most of the Southern and Central European countries.

Temperatures in France were particularly severe

throughout the month of August, with small, landlocked cities

in the central and southern regions

experiencing record heat waves

of up to 47 degrees Celsius.

Record-breaking maximum temperatures

were also experienced in Germany, Switzerland

and Portugal.

In the U.K,

a searing 38.5 degrees Celsius

was recorded in Brogdale, Kent,

on the 10th of August, 2003,

a record which has since to be broken.

This extreme weather came as a result

of high pressure becoming stuck over Western Europe,

barring the Atlantic Ocean’s rain-bearing depressions

from entering the continent.

With little moisture in the air,

the skies were generally cloudless,

allowing the sun to further bake the land and sea.

In Switzerland,

June was the hottest month ever recorded

in 250 years of archiving.

A temperature record of 41.5 degrees Celsius

was reached on the 11th of August in Grono,

located in the Italian-speaking south of the country.

Drought affected much of Europe,

with no rainfall for weeks

resulting in forest fires breaking out in many countries,

with more than 25,000 fires recorded.

Portugal was the worst hit.

Nearly 6 percent of its forest area was destroyed,

over 3900 square kilometers,

covering an area nearly twice the size of Luxembourg.

With the protection of the forest gone,

millions of tons of topsoil and ash

eventually washed away into rivers,

badly affecting the quality of the water.

All over Europe, drought ravaged forests,

with trees suffering dieback in subsequent years

due to the lack of water.

Weakened trees were also more prone

to disease and pest infestation.

And the lack of rainfall

led to desperately low levels of water in Europe’s rivers.

In Serbia, the river Danube fell

to its lowest level in 100 years.

People were shocked when World War II bombs

which had been submerged under the river for decades

were now exposed by the receding water.

Numerous rivers as well as reservoirs dried up.

This led to shortages in the water supply to the population

and a decreased output from hydroelectric plants.

Throughout the European Alps,

there was exceptional melting of snow and glaciers,

which led to many mountainous regions

experiencing rock and ice falls.

Alpine glaciers shrank by 10 percent over the summer.

The unusually hot weather

resulted in an exceptional reduction of glacier depth.

It was nearly double that of 1998,

the previous record year,

and around five times more than the average lost

in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000.

Thawing of normal permanently frozen parts of the mountains

reached greater depths and occurred

at higher altitudes than before.

In Switzerland, melting snow and ice

brought about the collapse of a rock face

on the iconic Matterhorn.

Climbers had to be evacuated and all activity was suspended

while geologists evaluated the safety of the mountain face.

Mont Blanc, which on an average summer’s day

may see 300 climbers, was shut for the first time

since it was conquered in 1786.

The heat wave made Europe’s highest peak so unstable

that it was deemed too dangerous to climb.

Glaciologists estimated that it would need

30 to 40 meters of fresh snow,

which would normally take several harsh winters to fall,

to replace the snow and ice that had melted that summer.

But some experts believe that the damage done

to the alpine environment will never be repaired.

The loss of snow and ice has another serious effect:

Sun hitting white snow reflects back into space.

But sun hitting gray rock is absorbed further,

heating up the ground.

The length of time, as well as the ferocity of the heat,

proved deadly to thousands of people across Europe,

and exposed the vulnerability of a population

unprepared for such an extreme weather event.

Mortality rose so much that mortuaries could no longer cope

with the growing number of bodies.

When space eventually ran out,

temporary mortuaries were set up in refrigeration lorries.

In the United Kingdom,

there were around 2000 fatalities.

Portugal lost over 2000 people,

including 19 who perished in forest fires.

In Italy, more than 4000 died,

with exceptionally high humidity blamed

for the large number of fatalities.

And in Germany, 7000 died,

making it the worst natural disaster

in the country’s history.

And it wasn’t only humans that died in the extreme heat.

Many farm animals like chickens, pigs and cows

perished as well.

Farming as an industry was hugely affected.

Vegetation growth across Europe was reduced

during the dry and hot summer by about 30 percent.

Crop yields were greatly reduced.

The heat wave is thought to have cost European farming

13.1 billion euros.

It also led to higher food prices.

At most rivers, extreme low flows

as well as unusually high water temperatures were recorded.

Low flows affected nuclear generating facilities,

which all had to operate at reduced capacities.

The small nuclear power plant of Obrigheim

on the Neckar River was completely turned off

due to insufficient cooling water.

Low water in most of Europe’s large rivers

made navigation by ships difficult or impossible.

The major European transport routes

along the Danube and Rhine basins ceased to function.

Rivers like the Po, the Elbe

and the Oder were severely affected as well.

Land transport around Europe was hit as well.

Some railway tracks buckled in the heat.

Network Rail in the U.K. imposed speed restrictions

for trains when the temperature rose above 30 degrees Celsius.

This was to avoid trains derailing

when railway lines might have been damaged

and led to severe delays and cancellations.

The London Underground, much of which runs

without air conditioning for passengers,

became dangerously hot.

But the 2003 heat wave will be remembered primarily

because of the high levels of mortality.

Following the disaster,

a joint Met Office-Department of Health project

called the Heat-Health Watch

now gives advanced warning of U.K. hot weather,

while the French government has made efforts

to improve its prevention, surveillance and alert system.

The need for governments to plan for extreme heat waves

was further justified in the light of subsequent events

which occurred during the summer of 2010.

Throughout that fateful summer,

vast swathes of the northern hemisphere

were impacted by severe heat,

including most of the United States,

parts of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The heat wave shattered all previous records

both in terms of temperature

and the expanse of the area affected.

Temperatures were between 6.7 and 13.3 degrees Celsius

above the average, and the heat wave covered

around 2 million square kilometers.

Ten countries around the world broke their records

for the highest temperature ever recorded.

The heat was the most intense in Myanmar and Pakistan,

which both recorded the highest temperature ever seen in Asia,

a searing 53.5 degrees Celsius.

Kuwait recorded its hottest temperature in history,

with an astonishing 52.6 degrees Celsius.

Temperatures in Basra, Iraq,

reached 52 degrees Celsius,

its hottest day ever.

Saudi Arabia suffered a double blow.

Not only did sandstorms

cause eight power plants to shut down,

blacking out several cities,

but this happened at the same time

as Jeddah sweltered in 52-degrees heat,

the highest temperature ever experienced in the Kingdom.

The heat wave also reached Africa,

where Sudan was blasted by 49.6 degrees Celsius.

Relative to average temperatures,

the most severely affected was Russia,

where an extraordinary heat wave brought

the world’s largest country to its knees.

Temperatures in Moscow soared

to 38.2 degrees Celsius in the daytime,

and didn’t fall much through the night.

But it was in Yashkul, near the Kazakhstan border,

that the temperature soared to 44 degrees Celsius,

the highest ever recorded in Russia.

The 2010 heat wave in Russia was caused

by a "blocking high" situation.

A blocking high pressure system

is a high-pressure system

that stays over a particular place for a very long time,

and it blocks low-pressure systems

that would bring fresh air into the area.

The 2010 Russian heat wave was an example

where there was a very strong stationary

or blocking high-pressure system for a very long time.

It was basically centered around Moscow, but had a very--

It was a very large system

and affected a large part of Europe.

There’s two things about high-pressure systems.

One is that the air is sinking,

and so there tends to be less cloud.

But the other thing is that because the air

is very, very slowly moving,

it tends to be trapped near the surface.

Because it’s sinking and slowly moving, it’s trapped.

So any pollution that’s produced at the surface

tends to stay there.

And if the high pressure stays there,

pollution is accumulating and accumulating,

and it’s getting worse and worse.

Another one of the major factors

in the record-breaking heat wave

was the position of the jet stream.

The jet stream is a flow of strong winds

high in the atmosphere,

flowing from west to east around the globe.

And as it goes, it drives the weather patterns,

so the lows and highs of the weather patterns

are driven along by the jet stream.

The jet stream meanders.

It flows to and fro, like a wave.

And the highs and lows follow it in that way.

Sometimes, if it gets particularly deviating,

it can be associated with a blocking high system.

And if you look at the Russian situation

with the heat waves in 2010,

what happened was that the jet stream meandered

quite a lot off its normal track

and placed a large high pressure system

right over Central and Eastern Europe and Russia,

causing the heat waves that occurred in that year.

As well as stifling temperatures,

the heat wave in Russia caused the worst drought in 130 years.

A toxic smog that shrouded major cities,

particularly Moscow, added to the misery.

We have to stay in the room of the hotel.

So we go out just a few hours per day because of the smog.

Forest fires burned out of control,

and there were severe losses to agriculture,

forestry and infrastructure.

In all, this deadly disaster claimed thousands of lives.

An estimated 56,000 more Russians

died during the heat wave

than in the same period the previous year.

Lack of water resulted in the failure

of around 90,000 square kilometers of crops.

In total, the cost of the heat wave

to Russia’s agriculture industry

ran to about 15 billion U.S. dollars.

As well as intense heat,

people in the big cities had to contend

with eye-watering levels of pollution.

So if you get a high-pressure system sitting over a city,

you’ve got the local pollution, particularly from cars,

and that’s going to trap these pollutants into the local area.

And as that accumulates over days,

you begin to see the air becoming hazier.

You’ll be familiar with the sort of yellowish color

associated with high-pressure stagnant air patches.

This air is not only unpleasant to look at,

it’s also unpleasant and bad for your health to breathe.

Air pollution in the big industrial cities

just wouldn’t disperse.

In Moscow, the city’s environmental protection agency

warned the population

that the concentrations of carbon monoxide

were five times higher than acceptable levels,

while particle matter pollution

was three times above safe limits.

Added to this toxic mix was another foul ingredient:

the smoke from forest and peat fires.

The heat wave peaked throughout July

and into the first half of August.

This coincided exactly

with the worst period for peat and forest fires.

As the temperatures soared,

fires ripped through the dry vegetation

and spread rapidly.

These fires were probably started

through careless actions as people lit barbecues

in the tinder-dry forests.

Throughout July 2010,

over 40 peat fires broke out

to the south and east of Moscow.

These fires claimed 52 lives,

destroyed property

and left over 3000 people homeless.

The heavy smoke disrupted flights into Moscow.

At Domodedovo Airport, visibility on the runways

was down to about 370 meters.

Artillery rockets housed at a military base in Alabinsk,

about 72 kilometers southwest of Moscow,

were moved to a safer location away from the fires.

Even more alarmingly,

fires approached a nuclear research facility in Sarov,

about 500 kilometers east of Moscow,

where nuclear material had to be moved.

After wildfires destroyed a naval base

on the outskirts of Moscow, then-president Dmitry Medvedev

sacked several top military officials.

In July 2010,

with pollution levels in Moscow

five times greater than normal,

over 14,000 deaths were recorded.

At one point, there were roughly 700 deaths per day,

twice the normal mortality rate.

As haze and smoke spread through Moscow’s streets,

visibility was reduced to 50 meters in some areas.

The acrid smoke seeped

into apartment buildings and offices.

Fumes even sank down into the metro network.

Doctors warned the people of Moscow to remain at home.

Those that did venture out

clutched handkerchiefs to their faces

or wore masks, some even keeping them on

when they got back indoors.

Well-known tourist sites

such as the Ostankino television tower

and Saint Basil’s Cathedral

were only dimly visible through the smoky haze,

as the sun, a faint yellow sphere hanging in the smog,

continued to roast the town.

Desperate people tried to find some respite

from the intense heat,

but this led to even more deaths.

The acrid cocktail of smoke and pollutants

caused many Muscovites

to flee their homes or workplaces

and hunt out air-conditioned malls,

cinemas and other public buildings.

But the weak and the elderly were not so fortunate.

Ambulance services reported

that emergency calls were up 10 percent,

while paramedics were reported to have fainted

in sweltering ambulance vehicles.

At the same time, hospitals canceled

all non-emergency operations.

Many patients chose to go home

because of the stifling heat in wards

without air conditioning or fans.

In an effort to stem the choking levels of pollution,

factories in Moscow were asked to temporarily cut emissions

by as much as 40 percent.

The fact that the 2010 heat wave

followed only seven years after the devastation of 2003

seemed to signal a worrying trend

of extreme hot-weather events.

But how does the 2010 heat wave compare to that of 2003?

In most respects,

it was more extreme than the one seven years earlier,

both in terms of its severity

and the sheer scale of the area affected.

The heat wave in 2003 was centered

very much over the more western part of Europe,

whereas the 2010 one was more over the eastern part of Europe.

And the 2010 heat wave, there was also a large drought.

So the combination of heat and drought

had a huge impact on, um...

On yields in the area.

That was not so much the case in 2003,

where the strongest impact of the heat waves

was really on human health.

There is a probability that parts of Russia

are on the verge of a period in which extreme heat events

will happen more frequently.

But it isn’t only Russia that needs to brace itself

for more frequent extreme hot-weather events.

It’s certainly true that there’s more heat waves

occurring across the globe now

than there were earlier in my career.

So one that I experienced personally was in the U.K.,

it was in 1976,

when it was extremely hot and dry during the summer.

And that was quite-- Very, very unusual.

And now we seem to be experiencing

those sort of things much more often.

If 2018 is anything to go by,

the heat waves will be a widespread scourge.

From May 2018, a vast ridge of high pressure

sat across the majority of Northern Europe,

reaching from Ireland,

across the United Kingdom

and right over to Scandinavia.

The enormous lump of high pressure

blocked all other weather systems.

Much-needed cool air was pushed down over Southern Europe.

Europe taken as a whole had its warmest May

and second warmest June in continental records

dating back to 1910.

The normally cool countries in Scandinavia

were blasted by extraordinary heat.

All-time record-high temperatures were recorded

at three locations in Sweden,

10 in Finland and 14 in Norway.

In Sweden, the heat wave wasn’t the only problem.

In July 2018, the Swedish government called

for international help to tackle a series of blazes

across the country that were raging out of control.

A country more used to dealing with the extremes

of winter cold and snow now found itself

having to cope with extreme summer weather.

As temperatures soared, rainfall dried up

to only one-seventh of the expected amount,

the lowest since record-keeping began

in the late 19th century.

With flows in the rivers and lakes falling

to exceptional lows, Sweden faced water shortages.

And after the months of drought,

followed by weeks of sweltering heat,

the nation’s forests had become tinderboxes.

More than 60 separate wildfires broke out,

12 of them in Swedish Lapland within the Arctic Circle,

where the temperature reached more than 33 degrees Celsius,

the highest ever recorded in that polar region.

Many villages threatened by the infernos

were forced to be evacuated.

The Swedish Armed Forces

and the Home Guard were called in to help.

But the nation famous for its cold and snow

found itself unable to cope

with the fires raging within its border

and made an appeal for help from abroad.

Norway and Italy both answered the call,

sending airborne firefighting teams.

Italy sent two planes to Sweden to dump water on the blazes

while Norway, which itself had been hit by wildfires,

supplied eight helicopters to help battle Sweden’s blazes.

The exceptional heat wave drove Swedes

to attempt to cool down in the ocean.

Between May and July,

the Swedish Sea Rescue Society

mounted 651 rescue operations across the country,

the highest number for that period since records began.

As more people were attracted

to Sweden’s lakes and coastline,

the number of deaths by drowning showed a marked spike.

In May and June alone, 39 people perished.

And the number of children who lost their lives in the water

during those two months was equal

to the whole of the previous year’s fatalities.

In France, nuclear reactors were forced to close

because of the soaring temperatures.

Several French cities were blighted

by high levels of pollution caused by the heat wave.

Authorities were forced to impose traffic bans

to try and ease the problem.

In the capital city of Paris,

cheaper daily metro and bus passes were offered

to discourage people from driving.

Meanwhile in Portugal,

more than 700 firefighters struggled to contain

a major wildfire

in the southern coastal region of the Algarve.

As temperatures reached 46 degrees Celsius in places,

threatening Portugal’s national record of 47.4 degrees Celsius,

the fire spread through a eucalyptus forest

and dense undergrowth.

Mindful of the dozens of people killed

in terrible fires the previous year,

Portugal’s civil protection agency attempted to avoid

a similar tragedy by sending out mobile text alerts

warning of the extreme fire risks.

Temperatures in Spain continued to soar,

and seven people were reported to have died from heatstroke.

Wildfires raged in the south of the country

and in the center, near the capital city, Madrid,

as well as in the west near Extremadura,

a region close to the Portuguese border,

and in Catalonia, which borders France in the north.

Even at night,

the population continued to suffer

in dangerous heat.

The town of Zorita in the southwest

recorded an astonishing midnight temperature

of 35.1 degrees Celsius,

Spain’s highest ever midnight temperature.

In Germany, temperatures peaked at 39 degrees Celsius.

For some, the unusually high temperatures proved a blessing.

German wine growers thanked the hot, dry weather

for a bumper harvest which could be picked

two weeks earlier than usual.

But for other Germans,

the heat wave brought only misery.

In Gotteszell, a town in Bavaria,

regional trains had to be suspended

after railway tracks warped in the extreme heat.

Forest fires raged just 50 kilometers south

of the German capital, Berlin,

where firefighters struggled

to quell the largest blazes in decades.

Fire crews, many of them volunteers,

had their work complicated

by the presence of unexploded hand grenades and shells,

which still littered the forests around Berlin.

When a number of the World War II munitions exploded,

firefighters were forced to withdraw.

540 people from three villages were forced to evacuate

as smoke and flames threatened to engulf their homes.

Residents in Berlin were told to keep windows and doors shut

and to turn off their air-conditioning units

to help protect themselves from the acrid fumes.

Helicopters tried to quench the flames

by dropping water from above.

Authorities even called in police water cannons,

more commonly used to control

unruly crowds and public disturbances,

which helped to eventually contain the blaze.

In Greece, scorching temperatures

that reached over 40 degrees Celsius,

coupled with severe drought,

turned the hillside forests into kindling.

Blazes started in numerous locations,

fanned by the strongest winds in eight years.

More than 90 people were confirmed dead,

while many were still missing.

At least 300 homes in the coastal villages near Athens

frequented by holidaymakers

were either destroyed or severely damaged.

It was Monday, the 23rd of July,

at 12.30 in the afternoon

that the first fire alarm sounded in Kinetta,

a seaside town around 50 kilometers west

of Greece’s capital, Athens.

Later that afternoon,

the authorities received emergency calls

reporting flames near Rafina, east of the capital.

Powerful winds gusting at 120 kilometers per hour

whipped the flames into a deadly wave of fire

which swept downhill towards the quiet seaside town of Mati

like a volcanic flow.

The fire reached there around 5:00 p.m.,

when many Greeks would be having an afternoon nap

following lunches delayed till 4:00 p.m.

because of the intense heat.

Hundreds of people were trapped

as flames threatened to engulf them.

Many attempted to flee in their cars

but were overtaken by fire as they became hemmed in

on narrow roads gridlocked by traffic.

Others fled for the safety of the sea,

where they watched in horror as their town burned.

Boats were mobilized

in a hurriedly organized rescue operation.

Nearly 700 people were snatched up from beaches,

and 19 picked out of the sea.

Rescuers retrieved six bodies from the water.

The following day, large numbers of fellow Greeks

descended on the emergency headquarters.

They brought with them clothing,

food, water and other essentials.

Meanwhile, officials and residents braced themselves

for the death toll to climb higher

as rescue workers searched for the missing

among some 2500 burned homes.

We don’t have any hope to find any alive,

An hour before from another street,

the next block from here,

they find the body inside the house.

I think for the next days we’ll continue to find bodies.

It’s a very huge area that we have to search.

Emergency crews had the terrible task

of combing through incinerated dwellings

as well as the burnt-out vehicles

that had been used by people attempting to flee the fires.

Burnt-out vehicles marked the path of the flames.

The heat had reached such intensity

that cars had literally melted,

leaving pools of aluminum and liquefied rubber.

By Wednesday, two days after the inferno,

the death toll in Mati stood at 80.

Frantic relatives attempted to track down those still missing

from the horrific blaze.

Meanwhile, coroners began the grim task

of identifying those bodies that had been found.

The Greek prime minister, who was out of the country

on a state visit to Bosnia,

was forced to return to his stricken country.

He declared three days of mourning.

The day after the fire, he spoke in a televised address

about the grief of the nation

in the face of an unbearable tragedy.

Citizens called on the government to take swift action

so that survivors, many of whom had lost everything,

could rebuild their lives.

A week after the horrific fires,

people gathered outside the Greek parliament

and held a candlelight vigil.

Some blamed the high death toll

on the fact that many of the homes which had burned down

had been illegally built in wooded areas.

Searching for ways to raise cash

in the wake of the 2010 debt crisis,

the government had apparently allowed owners

to keep their illegal houses if they agreed to pay a fine.

But worryingly, it wasn’t just Europe

that experienced heat waves in 2018.

All across the world,

people were experiencing record high temperatures.

A weather station at Ouargla in the Algerian Sahara Desert

recorded the astonishing temperature

of 51.3 degrees Celsius,

the hottest verified temperature

in the whole of Africa.

And for the population of Oman, there was no relief.

Even when the sun went down,

the night temperature stayed stiflingly hot.

In Canada, at least 54 deaths were attributed

to the prolonged heat wave and high humidity in Quebec,

with Montreal seeing a new record high temperature

of 36.6 degrees Celsius.

The statistics surrounding heat waves

point to a worrying trend of rising temperatures

and extreme hot-weather events around the globe.

At the moment, we already have warmed the world

by about 1 degree since preindustrial times

through the burning of fossil fuels

and buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

And the Paris Agreement in 2015 said that--

Or the governments agreed

they want to try and limit the warming

to 2 degrees or lower, to 1.5 degrees.

To do that, we need to stop burning fossil fuels

and emissions go towards zero.

And the different countries have pledged their NDCs,

which is their National Determined Contributions,

to reaching this goal.

And these pledges at the moment are, however,

not low enough or not high enough.

It’s a global problem

and, in particular, the risk of heat wave

has already increased quite a lot everywhere.

And, of course, we can adapt to that to some degree,

but we can’t adapt indefinitely.

And we can’t just move out of all hot places.

Then there would not be enough cool places left

where people would be able to live

without a high risk of heat waves.

At the moment, the way that ordinary people

can access renewable energy and clean motoring is not easy.

The assorted costs of buying an electric vehicle

at the moment are relatively high.

However, if we look at the cost of photovoltaics,

of solar panels, they have absolutely plummeted.

The costs have fallen far faster

than any of the economists predicted.

So for the ordinary person, this is going to mean

that they’ll be able to access renewable energy

in an affordable way.

So in terms of saving energy,

there’s things that people can do.

So, I mean, the first thing is to try and just use less.

So can you turn off the lights? Can you turn off the heating?

There’s also things like buying your energy

from a green provider, so you’re buying from companies

that use renewable energy and not fossil fuel energy.

Then there’s using different transport systems.

So can you choose to walk today or go on your bike,

rather than jumping in the car?

So there’s a number of things that people can do

in their normal daily lives to help the situation.

Having said that, we can’t be expected to produce the answers.

It’s got to be the government and policies and laws

that steer people in the right behavior.

They need to be helped.

Scientists from

the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

have recently predicted

that average global temperatures could increase

by somewhere between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius

by the end of this century.

Changes as a result of the Earth heating up

would include the melting of the polar ice caps,

leading to a rise in sea levels and widespread flooding.

Low-lying islands in the Pacific

could vanish entirely,

with many coastal cities disappearing beneath seawater.

There would be mass extinction of animals

as their habitats are lost,

as well as an increase in the occurrence and severity

of storms and other extreme weather events,

like heat waves and an increase in droughts,

leading to loss of agricultural land and famine.

The results would be catastrophic.

It would seem likely that more record-breaking heat waves

await us in the future.

And should they persist,

these terrifying and largely inescapable

increases in air temperature

will result in devastating losses of life.

But whatever happens, one thing is certain.

The heat wave is truly one of Mother Nature’s

stealthiest and most deadly disasters.