MORE extreme weather has been forecast around the world this week.
The warning came as large swathes of Europe, the US, North Africa and Asia were wilting under intense heatwave and parts of the US, Canada and Asia struggled with floods because of heavy rain.
Reports quoting meteorological departments and experts said heatwave conditions are expected through into next week in southern Europe and North Africa. Temperatures there will peak around 45C, but parts of northern Africa could hit 50C.
Southern parts of the US and northern Mexico will also suffer far above-average temperatures for most of next week. Temperatures will be in the mid 40s and will not drop below 30C.
There are severe thunderstorms forecast in Canada, bringing tornadoes, hail and heavy rain. India, the sub-continent and western parts of Myanmar will get heavy monsoon conditions with up to 50cm of rain in five days.
Southern China will feel the effects of tropical storm Talim, which is likely to make landfall near Hainan province late today or early tomorrow.
More river flooding is likely in South Korea, with heavy rain also expected in nearby Japan.
Italy issued hot weather red alerts for 16 cities yesterday, with meteorologists warning that temperatures will hit record highs across southern Europe in the coming days.
Spain, Italy and Greece have been experiencing scorching temperatures for several days already, damaging agriculture and leaving tourists scurrying for shade.
But a new anticyclone dubbed Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead, pushed into the region from north Africa yesterday and could lift temperatures above 45C in parts of Italy early this week.
“We need to prepare for a severe heat storm that, day after day, will blanket the whole country,” Italian weather news service Meteo.it warned. “In some places ancient heat records will be broken.”
Besides the Italian capital, health alerts were in place from the central city of Florence to Palermo in Sicily and Bari in the southeast of the peninsula, while the temperatures also started to build further north.
“This is not normal. I don’t remember such intense heat, especially at this time of year,” said Federico Bratti, sunbathing at Lake Garda.
In Spain, forecasters warned of the risk of forest fires and said that it would not be easy to sleep during the night, with temperatures unlikely to fall below 25C across the country.
The heatwave will intensify from today, with temperatures reaching 44C in the Guadalquivir valley near Seville in the south of the country, forecasters predicted.
On the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canaries, meanwhile, at least 4,000 people had to be evacuated as a forest fire burned out of control following a heatwave, authorities said.
Europe’s highest recorded temperature of 48.8C, registered in Sicily two years ago, could be exceeded in the coming days, notably on the Italian island of Sardinia, meteorologists have said.
The heatwave has stretched across the Mediterranean to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was admitted to hospital on Saturday suffering dizziness and apparent dehydration. He was discharged yesterday.
The US was also in the grip of high temperatures, with nearly a quarter of the population under warnings for extreme heat, from the Pacific northwest, down through California, through the Southwest and into the Deep South and Florida.
Meanwhile, an already rain-soaked New England braced for more downpours, with four people dead from flooding.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said parts of New England and the Mid-Atlantic areas will get hit with storms ‘capable of producing torrential rainfall’ ahead of a cold front approaching from the west. The areas under risk include major cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
The heat warnings spread from the Pacific northwest, down through California, through the Southwest and into the Deep South and Florida.
Temperatures of more than 46C are forecast for areas of southern California’s high desert, along with Arizona and Nevada. The NWS said widespread record-breaking high temperatures are likely to be recorded across the Southwest, in the western Gulf Coast and also in south Florida.
South Korean authorities said the bodies of eight people trapped in a tunnel flooded by heavy rain in central parts of the nation were retrieved yesterday, with the death toll from days of torrential downpours that have pounded the country rising to 37.
Seo Jeong-il, head of the west Cheongju fire station, said an estimated 15 vehicles, including a bus, were submerged in the underpass in the city shortly after a levee of a nearby river was destroyed by the downpours on Saturday.
The latest disaster took place despite South Korea’s vow to step up preparedness against torrential rains after Seoul was hit last year with floods caused by the heaviest downpours in 115 years, inundating basement flats in low-lying neighbourhoods, including in the largely affluent Gangnam district.
A North Chungcheong province official said the levee unexpectedly collapsed before the precipitation reached the level required for restricting access to the tunnel.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, now on an overseas trip, convened a video-linked response meeting and said some regions had failed to take pre-emptive measures against the extreme weather.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the central and southern parts of the country could receive as much as 300mm of additional rain by tomorrow.
In India, officials in the capital New Delhi were racing to open some jammed flood gates at a barrage on the swollen river Yamuna to help drain out floodwater that has brought traffic to a standstill in parts of India’s capital and swamped historical monuments.
The river’s levels were at their highest in 45 years this week following unusually heavy rainfall in New Delhi and hilly northern states, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people as the Yamuna, which runs through the city, breached its banks.
Extreme temperatures are also hitting China.
The China Meteorological Administration issued an orange alert, the second-highest heatwave warning, forecasting that much of the country will face high temperatures through next week.
Over 40C has already been recorded, according to CCTV.
The state broadcaster reported Xinjiang province in northwestern China is likely to experience 45C and over. But other parts of the nation have suffered heavy rain and flooding, leaving residents stranded and crops damaged.
A boat sank with around 20 people onboard in Bangladesh’s Buriganga river near the capital Dhaka yesterday, a fire service official said.
Most of the passengers were believed to have swum ashore as the water bus sank close to the bank, according to fire service official Anwarul Islam.
No casualties were reported immediately.