German Heat Could Surpass Record; Death Toll in Europe Rises
July 27, 2006
Temperatures were expected to peak on Wednesday or Thursday in France, Britain and Germany before cooling off around the weekend with stormy conditions expected in some areas.
In addition to the public health risk, the torrid conditions have also caused headaches for event organizers, farmers and electricity companies.
In Germany, temperatures were forecast to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 F) on Thursday in the southwest of the country and around the capital Berlin, possibly surpassing record levels reached in 2003, forecasters said.
In a move that would bring misery for farmers, the German animal protection federation has called for animal transports to be stopped because of the heat, saying police had to rescue pigs who nearly died of thirst in a truck stuck in a traffic jam.
In another blow to farmers, in some areas of the country, harvests are likely to be up to 40 percent smaller than normal. Wulf Diepenbrock, an agriculture expert at Halle University, predicted that more of these kinds of heat waves in the year to come will force farmers to change their planting strategies.
"Some farmers are already mulling planting varieties which are better suited to resist longer periods of heat with no rainfall in between," he said.
Water levels low
Also in Germany, navigation on the river Elbe in the north of the country was disrupted after water levels dropped below navigable levels. Four months after flooding its banks, water in the river was just 90 centimeters (three feet) deep in some parts. Commercial vessels, which need water levels of at least 2.3 meters, were diverted into less affected canals.
The low level and temperature of the water in the river also led nuclear power generators along the banks of the Elbe to cut output.
High water temperatures have also disrupted electricity production at nuclear power stations in France and Spain. Water is used as a cooling agent at the plants but the temperature of discharged water must be within environmental norms.
"We are adjusting our output on a constant basis according to the temperature of the water," said a spokesman for the Vattenfall electricity company in Germany.
Despite the continuing heat, there's no need yet to worry about water supplies, since water reservoirs and ground water levels are still at acceptable norms.
"This is not to say that we're telling people to waste water," said Hermann Hahn from the German Water Management Association. "I'm just saying that it's unjustified to speak of a water supply catastrophe right now."
Loss of life
The heat wave has claimed an estimated 40 lives in Europe over the past two weeks but there has been no repetition of the massive loss of life in the heat wave of 2003 when in France alone 15,000 died.
The heat was blamed for the deaths of a man of 87 and a woman of 89 in the northern Italian city of Turin during the night Tuesday, the Italian ANSA news agency reported, adding that there was a heavy call on hospitals during the night with many people wanting to stay in their air-conditioned buildings.
The death of an 83-year-old woman in Barcelona brought the toll in Spain to nine.
In Denmark, also undergoing one of the hottest summers in its history, many local authorities have banned open air fires except at fixed barbecue sites.
Polish firefighters are on maximum alert to tackle forest fires caused by the drought. Over 8,000 fires have broken out in recent days and access has been banned to most forests. According to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Warsaw has seen the hottest month of July since temperatures began to be recorded 227 years ago. The average temperature in the Polish capital this month was 23.2 C, five degrees higher than the norm.