'Marker of climate change': Europe swelters in record-breaking June heatwave

Many parts of Europe are going through scorching heat with rapidly increasing temperatures.

Spain, France and other western European nations are under the severe June heatwave, that has sparked forest fires and many other concerns.

This weekend's temperatures were at the peak of the June heatwave.

Also read | Historic heatwave scorches US: When is it expected to end?

Scientists have predicted that such phenomena will now strike earlier in the year due to global warming.

According to a report by the weather service, "many parts of the region surpassed 40 degrees Celcius. Although storms were expected on the Atlantic coast on Sunday evening, the first signs that the stifling temperatures will gradually regress to concern only the eastern part of the country."

Biarritz, a city in southwestern France, saw its highest all-time temperature Saturday afternoon of 42.9 degrees Celsius (109.2 degrees Fahrenheit), according to state forecaster Meteo France.

Queues of hundreds of people and traffic jams formed outside aquatic leisure parks in France, with people seeing water as the only refuge from the devastating heat.

Watch | Heat wave results in hottest May in Spain, firefighters struggle to control fire

And at Vincennes Zoo, the staff constantly checked the animals for signs of dehydration.

Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Meteo France said that, " This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France since 1947." He even called the weather a "marker of climate change."

Forest fires in Spain on Saturday had burned nearly 20,000 hectares of land. Many people were forced to leave their homes and move to safe places because of the fires. Fourteen villages were evacuated.

Also read | France's state forecast department anticipates heatwave to hit country early this year

There have also been fires in Germany where temperatures reached 36 degrees Celcius.

UK also recorded its hottest day of the year on Friday, with temperatures reaching over 30 degrees Celcius in the early afternoon. Italy is also one of the countries. Experts warned the high temperatures were caused by worrying climate change trends.  

Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva said that "as a result of climate change, heatwaves are starting earlier."

"What we're witnessing today is unfortunately a foretaste of the future", she further added.

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