Records tumble as Europe swelters in heat

PARIS, Aug 12 (AFP) - Record statistics for heat and drought are among the casualties from the anticyclone that on Tuesday kept virtually all of Europe in a molten grip.

Meteorologists from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean rim say Europe's summer sizzler has bust many local, regional or national records that, in some cases, go back nearly 250 years.

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Heading the pack is Portugal, where a mighty 47.3 degrees Celsius (117.1 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded on August 1 in Amarelejo, a town on the Spanish border -- the hottest national temperature since records began in 1856.

Britain, known for its rainy, temperate climate, on Sunday recorded the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark (37.8 Celsius) for the first time in history.

In Spain, a new national high of 46 C (114.8 F) was set in Cordua on August 1, and across the country, temperatures have been four to five degrees C (7. 2-9.0 F) higher than the statistical average for the time of year.

Germany notched up a new national high of 40.8 C (105.44 F), 0.6 C (1.1 F) higher than the previous hottest.

In France, Parisians sweated out the hottest night since records began in 1873. That was overnight Sunday, when the mercury reluctantly crept down to 25. 5 C (77.9 F) before relentlessly climbing again at daybreak.

"We have had a major heatwave since August 4, with 40C-plus (104F-plus) temperatures in France every day, which is very rare," Michel Daloz, a forecaster with Meteo France, told AFP.

"These are the kinds of temperature you normally get in Seville," he said, referring to a Spanish town famous for its scorching weather.

Temperature records have been been broken in northern Italy, with a high of 39.2 (102.6 F) in Milan and 41.6 C (106.9 F) in Turin.

"Atmospheric temperatures have been reliably recorded in Milan since 1763. We have never before had a temperature of 39.2 (102.6 F)," said the city's meteorologist, Sergio Borghi.

Switzerland, where summers are eased by the country's high elevation, has also seen exceptionally torrid weather.

June was the hottest recorded June, and one of the driest, in 140 years of Swiss record keeping, with temperatures seven degrees C (12.6 F) above the norm.

Scientists are worried for the country's glaciers. In normal summers, mountainsides above 3,000 metres (9,750 feet) are covered with snow or ice, but this year, the snowline has started above 4,000 metres (13,000 feet). At 2, 000 metres (6,500 feet), the temperature has been a balmy 20 C (68 F).

The remarkable heatwave has been blamed on an anticyclone that, for some experts, was displaced northwards from the Sahara by exceptional rains in the Sahel.

It began in early August and has smothered Europe ever since, without a puff of wind from the traditional Atlantic westerlies to break it up. Forecasters believe that cooler weather may return from Thursday or Friday.

But of equal concern is a drought whose roots go back to lower-than-average winter and spring rains and prolonged dryness in the early summer.

Croatia and parts of southern France are suffering from their worst droughts in half a century, whereas southern Portugal has seen the lowest recorded national level for humidity.

Such dryness has been a major factor in forest fires that have inflicted more than a billion euros (dollars) in damage in Portugal and parts of the northern Mediterranean rim.

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Europe-weather-records

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This article is Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse.

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