18-month-old baby dies in a car in France: the fourth such death since Monday. 41.3 degrees in Germany: a record high

The number of people who have drowned in France since the start of the heatwave has risen to 55, after they went for a swim in rivers and streams in search of relief from the heat. This was announced by the French Minister for Sport, Marina Ferrari, who added that “65 per cent of the drownings occurred in unmarked or unsupervised bathing areas”.

Today, an 18-month-old child, who died after being rescued from an overheated car in France. He was rushed to the A&E department at Marseille University Hospital, but, due to the heat, he did not survive. He is the fourth child to have died from heatstroke inside a car since Monday.

The French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, has advised the country’s prefects to ban the consumption and sale of takeaway alcohol in public spaces across France, due to the scorching heatwave currently sweeping the country, known as the ‘canicule’. The minister’s recommendation was already adopted yesterday evening by the prefect of Paris, Patrice Faure.

In the capital, which is currently experiencing the hottest days in its history – since records began in 1947 – the ban comes into force from midday today until 7 am tomorrow, and from midday tomorrow until 7 am on Sunday.

The Paris police asked – and succeeded in persuading – the organisers to cancel several public events, including the Pride parade scheduled for this weekend, to avoid overburdening the emergency services, which are already under pressure due to the extreme heat. The LGBTQ+ Pride parade was due to take place on Saturday 27 June.

Over 2,000 additional beds have been set up in shelters to accommodate homeless people, who are currently particularly vulnerable to the heatwave that is sweltering Paris and much of France: this was announced by the French Minister for Labour and Solidarity, Jean-Pierre Farandou, alongside his colleague, the Minister for Health, Stéphanie Rist.

The emergency accommodation system – which “provides over 115,000 beds in France every day, at a cost of 3 billion euros” – is “stepped up during periods of extreme cold or heat”, the minister said, adding that in this case “this translates into over 2,000 additional places nationwide”.

Farandou made these remarks during a visit to a reception centre in Paris.

Several tonnes of ice have been distributed over the last few days to the Paris fire brigade to help cope with the effects of the extreme heatwave currently sweeping across the French capital. “On the night of 24 June, we received a message from a lieutenant-colonel in the Paris fire brigade,” Louis Mornaud, marketing manager at Ice Family – the company that supplied around 20 tonnes of ice to the fire brigade – told Agence France-Presse.

“The message read: ‘We are looking for large quantities of ice to cool the victims’ of the heatwave in Paris,” explained Mornaud. To lower body temperature in cases of hyperthermia, patients must be immersed in a cold environment, a procedure that requires tens of kilos of ice per person. “But the problem was where to store all this ice.”

“The City of Paris has found a solution: the ice rink at the Accor Arena”, in the capital’s 12th arrondissement, he continued. The Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP) confirmed that around 20 tonnes of ice had been delivered to the Accor Arena rink. The City Council told AFP that the operation was coordinated by the Mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, in collaboration with the prefecture.

The exceptional heatwave that has hit the UK, along with the rest of Europe, has put the National Health Service (NHS) under strain, with several hospitals forced to declare a ‘critical incident’ due to the impact of the high temperatures on the provision of services.

The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital has announced the measure due to “the widespread impact that extreme heat and humidity are having on our ability to provide services”, whilst at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, several refrigeration units have failed due to the high temperatures, disrupting digital systems and clinical services.

In Wales, the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has declared an emergency as it is unable to safely treat patients in the non-air-conditioned wards of some facilities, and at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, the MRI scanners have been taken out of service.

Yesterday, the NHS declared a general state of emergency, whilst the London Ambulance Service recorded a record number of calls for life-threatening emergencies following heat-related illnesses.

Meanwhile, a red alert is in force for the third day running due to record temperatures: yesterday afternoon, a record high of 36.7 degrees was recorded for the month of June.

Meanwhile, the heatwave is expected to ease off across the Kingdom over the weekend, with the arrival of rain and a drop in temperatures.

According to provisional figures, the German Weather Service (DWD) recorded 41.3 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Germany.

The provisional maximum value was recorded at 5 pm in Saarbrücken-Burbach, in Saarland, as reported by the meteorological service upon request.

The previous heat record for Germany was 41.2 degrees Celsius, recorded on 25 July 2019 in Toenisvorst and Duisburg-Baerl, in North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to the weather service, the heat was also particularly intense in Bad Kreuznach, in Rhineland-Palatinate, and in Kitzingen, in Bavaria, with temperatures reaching 40.7 degrees in the afternoon in both places.

The Swiss nuclear power station at Beznau was shut down this afternoon to prevent the river water used to cool the reactors from overheating, in the midst of the heatwave, energy group Axpo has announced.

“The temperature of the Aare river reached 25 degrees Celsius again yesterday and today. No significant drop in temperature is forecast in the short term. As a result, the Beznau nuclear power station has temporarily shut down its two reactors today. “Both are currently shut down,” the group stated on its website.

The decision was taken to limit the environmental impact on the river, whose waters are used to cool nuclear power stations before being released back into the environment. High water temperatures can, in fact, put aquatic ecosystems under stress and impose operational restrictions on power stations.

The Beznau power station, located in the canton of Aargau, is one of the oldest nuclear power stations still in operation in the world. This incident highlights how increasingly frequent heatwaves can directly affect energy production, including nuclear power generation.