Record summer heat and drought trigger European wildfires and disrupt energy grids

Western Europe has recorded its hottest June-July period on record, as average global sea surface temperatures reached an unprecedented high of 20.96 degrees Celsius in July. Worldwide, the month was the second-warmest ever observed, hovering 1.47 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages.

Intense heat and arid conditions have sparked widespread wildfires across France, Belgium, and the Balkans. In southwestern France, a blaze in the Landes region has scorched over 1,580 hectares of woodland, leading authorities to evacuate approximately 650 homes.

Meanwhile, severe drought has lowered river levels, forcing nuclear reactors in Hungary and Romania to curtail power generation. In Romania, military forces conducted a controlled blast in the Danube to channel cooling water to a nuclear facility. The receding waters have also uncovered prehistoric mammoth fossils and World War II relics across dried riverbeds.

Sources: Diário de Notícias (DN), Expresso, Jornal Económico, RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal)