In Frames | The heat is on

News in Frames | July 23, 2023

Wildfires and scorching heat battered Europe and other parts of the world over the week. At 52.2 degrees Celsius, a village in China’s Xinjiang region recorded the hottest mid-July in the country’s history. The previous record was 50.6 degrees Celsius set in 2017. In the U.S., Death Valley, where the hottest temperature on earth was recorded at 56.7 degrees Celsius in 1913, became a marker for the rest of the country. Furnace Creek in the area saw the mercury touch 53.3 degrees Celsius on July 16. Tourists flocked for a photo with the digital thermometer at the location, turning an occasion portending climate catastrophe into a festive affair.

Various parts of Europe sizzled in one of the most intense summers on the continent. Greece is battling wildfires at a region near Athens, and officials have employed water bombers to aid in the effort. However, strong winds are hampering the fight. A summer camp with more than 1,200 children had to be evacuated. The Acropolis, one of Greece’s top tourist destinations, had to be partially shut owing to heatwaves.

Italy and Spain bore the brunt of the heat. Tuesday became Rome’s hottest day on record, witnessing 41.8 degrees Celsius. Zoo animals were fed frozen food and fruit popsicles. More than 4,000 people had to be evacuated after a fire tore through Spain’s La Palma and burned down 3,500 hectares of land.

July 3 was the hottest day ever recorded globally, show data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius on that day, surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92 degrees Celsius as heatwaves sizzled around the world.