As the heat wave moved across the continent, Germany and Belgium also issued heat alerts, while firefighters battled to contain flames that have scorched land in Portugal for days. The United Kingdom’s weather service declared Tuesday the hottest day on record in Britain, where many schools closed and subway authorities urged commuters to avoid unnecessary travel. “It is in our hands.”The heat wave originated from a sprawling area of high pressure over Western Europe, also known as a heat dome. In addition to the excessively hot weather in Britain and eastern parts of France on Tuesday, record-challenging heat was also predicted for Belgium, the Netherlands and western Germany. From Friday into the weekend, a new heat dome will build over southern Europe with extremely high temperatures over Spain, France and Italy, which have already endured multiple bouts of punishing heat this summer.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 19, 2022 21:32 UTC