‘Invisible killer’ heatwave will lead to ‘heart attacks and death’, warns UN

An already sweltering Europe is being warned that the heatwaves sending temperatures sky-high will lead to ‘increased heart attacks and death’.

The UN’s weather agency has warned people in Italy, Greece and Spain, among others, of heat-induced health risks.

Wildfires have torn through La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, and Greece. Italian officials have pleaded with people not to visit the Colleseum. In Cyrpus, a 90-year-old man died of heatstroke.

And it’s only the beginning, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said today, warning that withering temperatures will become the norm amid climate change.

John Nairn, the WMO’s senior extreme heat advisor, said at a briefing in Geneva: ‘The Mediterranean heatwave is big but nothing like what’s been through North Africa.

‘It’s developing into Europe at this stage. We’re in the early phases of this heatwave.’

Officials in many European nations, between issuing heat alerts, have warned people to stay indoors during the day’s hottest hours.

The mercury worldwide, from North America and Asia to North Africa and the Mediterranean, is expected to rise above the 40s.

This could mean midnight temperatures in the high 30s during what is one of the busiest travel seasons for tourist-dependent European countries.

‘Repeated high nighttime temperatures are particularly dangerous for human health because the body is unable to recover from sustained heat,’ Nairn said.

‘This leads to increased cases of heart attacks and death.’

Panu Saaristo, emergency health unit team leader for the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies, added: ‘Heatwaves are really an invisible killer.’

‘We are experiencing hotter and hotter temperatures for longer stretches of time every single summer here in Europe.’

Speaking from Budapest, Hungary, Saaristo added that babies, infants and people with chronic health conditions are at particular risk from the heat.

The focus must also be on those working low-wage jobs living in poorer areas who might not be able to afford to take a rest or simply stay indoors, he said.

NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus said that this year’s blistering temperatures will be cool by next year’s standards.

‘Most people still don’t know what peril they are in,’ he tweeted today.

‘This will be the coolest summer for the rest of your life, and that shouldn’t be just a meme – it should be actually terrifying.

‘The ONLY path out of this heat nightmare is to end fossil fuels ASAP.’

More than 61,000 people died in last summer’s heatwaves in Europe, according to a recent study – the true death toll, analysts say, is likely even higher.

Experts warn that a repeat of this tragedy could happen, with this year having a good chance of being the hottest since records began in the 19th century.

June saw the warmest global average temperature at just over 0.5°C above the 1991-2020 average, according to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Climate experts chalked the bubbling mercury level to unprecedented sea surface temperatures and low Artic sea-ice levels.

And July to August will likely see even more temperature records broken, the WMO said.

The most recent heatwave – called Cerberus for the three-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld – inflamed temperatures in some parts of Europe to the mid-40s and will do so for ‘a prolonged number of days this week’, the WMO added.

A second heat storm, Charon, named after the underworld’s ferryman, is already crashing into countries. Even the typically cooler Balkans are labouring in the heat.

Temperatures could even break the 48°C record set in Sicily two years ago, the WMO said yesterday.

Italian meteorological society president Luca Mercalli said: ‘Even if that record [48.8°C] is not broken, we are seeing a heatwave the length of which is unprecedented.’

Italy is expected to be baked by 40°C heat today, according to its weather service, with 20 out of the country’s 27 cities under its highest heat warning.

The same temperature will engulf Greece, too, its national meteorological agency said.

In Spain, it will be even hotter. Forecasters say it could reach anywhere between 41.7 to 43.9°C in the northeastern regions of Aragon and Catalonia and the island of Mallorca.

Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean, maybe scorched today by 47°C heat, with up to 43°C seen in Rome.

The EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) has issued red heat alerts for most of Italy, northeastern Spain, Croatia, Serbia, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that by 2050, half of the European population may face sweltering heat.

Nairn said it can be tricky to explain just why it’s so hot at the moment. Heat-trapping gases spewed from fossil fuels and the return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern, are among the reasons why.

‘These are not your normal weather systems of the past,’ he said, ‘you have to do climate repair to change it.

‘So, it is global warming and is going to continue for some time.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.