Global suffers from heat as hottest weather in 125,000 years
Recently, many European countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany, have been experiencing rare high temperatures, with local highs reaching 45 degrees Celsius.
This is part of a global pattern of rising temperatures that scientists and climatologists generally believe is the result of human activity.
Italian firefighters conducted almost 33,000 operations
According to CCTV news report, the data released by the Italian research agency on the 22nd shows that wildfires are frequent due to the recent rare high temperature and the most severe drought in 70 years.
Italian fire departments carried out more than 32,900 firefighting operations involving forests and vegetation from June 15 to July 21, 4,040 times more than the same period last year.
Citing the contents of a report submitted by Ansa news agency for researchers at Italy’s Cattolica University, CCTV News reported that during the above-mentioned period, the fire department deployed more than 140,000 firefighters and more than 53,500 fire engines and other vehicles to fight fires, with a total working time of nearly 40,000 hours.
This report says that Italy was the European country most affected by wildfires last year and needs to be alerted to the fact that the situation looks worse this year. Italy had 1,422 fires on record last year, ranking first and second in Europe and the world, respectively, with a combined area of 160,000 hectares on fire last year,” said Catolica University researcher Chiara Cardedu. This number of recorded fires is the highest in Italy in 10 years, but we estimate that this year’s figures will be worse.”
Take, for example, a recent fire along Vesilia in central Italy’s Tuscany region, where wildfires led to the evacuation of more than 1,000 people and 868 hectares of overland fires. The northern district of Fregli-Venezia Giulia has been hit by several wildfires in quick succession recently. A female civil defense volunteer was killed by a fallen tree while helping to fight the fire on the 21st.
Over 600 people evacuated as fire breaks out in northern suburb of Athens, Greece
A mountain fire ignited in a forested area on the Greek island of Lesvos and gradually spread to the seaside resort of Vatera on 23rd local time. The scene of the fire was covered with smoke, and all local residents and tourists have been evacuated.
According to CCTV News, at 8:00 a.m. local time on July 20, Greek General Fire Brigade spokesman Ioannis Atopios said that a hill fire broke out in the northern suburbs of Athens in the Puntland area the night before. Many houses in the northeastern suburbs of Athens were burned, roads were closed, and the number of evacuees exceeded 600 people, with three people injured to varying degrees.
Due to the ongoing disaster, the Greek government has regarded this summer as one of the most difficult summers in the history of the Mediterranean region.
Europe's heat wave shatters British records
The Daily Mail news website reported that the record-high temperatures in England have led to fires in many places.
In the Winnington area of England, forest fires destroyed a large number of houses. Some local residents said they lost everything in the fires. Local time on the 19th, London, 110 fire engines to fight fires, the fire scene a piece of scorched land like a “war zone”, a firefighter on the scene lamented that this is like “hell”.
Winnington area, forest fire destroys a large number of houses
In addition to the Winnington area, the worst affected area is Dagenham in East London. Video from the scene shows that the fire destroyed many buildings and black smoke rolled over many places.
The London Fire Brigade said the 19th was the busiest day for the London fire department since the end of World War II. A British expert warned that the severity of fires across the UK is unprecedented, and with climate change, there could be more fires in the future.
The highest temperature in Britain also exceeded 40 ℃ on the 19th, a new record high. London declared a “major event” state on the same day. Extremely dry ground and high temperatures make all over the UK like a ready to detonate “powder keg”. In addition to London, England, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire, as well as Scotland and Wales, many places have fire.
Fires hit Spain and Portugal as Europe swelters
Local time July-20, ravaged many parts of Spain’s forest fires are still burning, some local service agencies have exhausted their fire-fighting capacity. About 4,000 people have been evacuated due to fires in the central province of Ceblos, Avila.
A mountain fire has been raging for four days in the city of Murca in northern Portugal on 20 local time. More than 1,000 firefighters have been battling forest fires across Portugal, including in the city of Murca, since a heat wave of more than 40 degrees Celsius swept through several areas of the country.
According to CCTV news citing AFP 23 reported that the European Union satellite monitoring service “European Forest Fire Information System” data show that Spain has lost nearly 200,000 hectares of forest fires this year, is the most serious European forest fire losses; and Portugal lost more than 48,000 hectares of forest fires, the third loss of forest fires in Europe Portugal is the third worst country in Europe in terms of forest fire losses.
According to China News Network, Hans Kluge, director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, said on 22 local time that Europe has been hit by a heat wave, with frequent hot weather and wildfires. In Spain and Portugal alone, more than 1,700 people have died from the heat this year.
July 20 at the scene of a mountain fire in the autonomous region of Galicia, Spain. Photo by Xinhua News
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations climate science agency, we are currently living in the hottest period in 125,000 years, CCTV Finance reported. The reason behind this is greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. The committee says that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest level in 2 million years and is still rising.
Greenland's ice is rapidly melting in warm weather
A CNN report said:
The water off the coast of northwest Greenland is a glass-like calm, but the puddles accumulating on the region’s icebergs are a sign that a transformation is underway higher on the ice sheet.
Several days of unusually warm weather in northern Greenland have triggered rapid melting, made visible by the rivers of meltwater rushing into the ocean.
The amount of ice that melted in Greenland between July 15 and 17 alone would be enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to data from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center.
“The northern melt this past week is not normal, looking at 30 to 40 years of climate averages,” said Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. “But melting has been on the increase, and this event was a spike in melt.”
For the scientists out on the ice sheet, the warmth has been alarming.
“It definitely worries me,” said Kutalmis Saylam, a research scientist with the University of Texas who is currently stationed in Greenland. “Yesterday we could wander around in our t-shirts — that was not really expected.”
Each summer, scientists worry that they will see a repeat of the record melting that occurred in 2019, when 532 billion tons of ice flowed out into the sea. An unexpectedly hot spring and a July heat wave that year caused almost the entire ice sheet’s surface to melt. Global sea level rose permanently by 1.5 millimeters as a result.
Greenland holds enough ice — if it all melted — to lift sea level by 7.5 meters around the world.
European market will see new business opportunities
The heat wave swept through the United Kingdom, summer products sales boom
Data shows that British retailers selling summer products are experiencing a sales boom due to the heat. Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest supermarket group, reported that sales of electric fans jumped 1876% last week, sales of air conditioning equipment jumped 2420%, and sales of paddling pools rose by 814%. Large DIY home and garden tools and materials chain B&Q (B&Q) said that sales of hoses and sprinklers more than doubled this week compared to daily levels, and sales of hot water kettles almost tripled. In addition, major UK supermarkets also reported a surge in sales of ice cream, drinks, barbecue coals and solar products.
It is worth noting that brick-and-mortar retailers are under enormous pressure as the heat sets in. According to market research firm Springboard, the number of shoppers, or foot traffic, on Britain’s high streets fell by 7.3 percent this week compared to last week. Analysts say that if the heat continues, more people will choose to shop online, which may be good news for online retailers.
95% of European households without air conditioning, new opportunities for Chinese air conditioners
The recent hot weather in European countries continues, and the meteorological departments of many countries have issued high temperature warnings and predicted that the maximum temperature will even exceed 40 degrees Celsius. In addition to the United Kingdom, southern Europe, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, higher temperatures, last week in Portugal, the temperature in many places exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, the past week, almost the entire territory of Portugal is on high temperature red alert, the local department is expected to reach a maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius.
According to data from the International Energy Agency, Europe’s air conditioning penetration rate is only about 5%. In comparison, the United States reaches 90%, Japan has 89%, India also has 6%, and China is 60%.
For most European families, buying an air conditioner is not a big expense, the price of an air conditioner is basically around five or six hundred euros, but the installation cost is far more than the selling price of the air conditioner itself, the installation cost of air conditioners in many European countries can reach more than 10,000 RMB, and individual cities can even reach more than 15,000 RMB. In addition, the cost of electricity in Europe is also very expensive, with residential electricity prices in Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria, Portugal and the Netherlands basically reaching more than RMB 2 yuan per unit.
But this year, the high temperature in many European countries has lasted for a period of time, and European residents who could not stand the high temperature also began to increase the purchase of air conditioners. China is the most major air conditioner exporting country, according to Chinese customs data, the number of Chinese air conditioner exports in 2021 was 52.77 million units. 2022 June, Midea, Gree, Haier foreign sales were -39.5%, -9.1%, 28% year-on-year. Among them, according to statistics, as of May, Haier European air conditioning exports grew 123.1% year-on-year, the industry’s first growth rate; to date, the cumulative annual growth of 37% in local sales of European air conditioners.