- Man Crashes Stage At British Academy Film Awards, Prompting Execs To Investigate Security Breach Daily Caller
- BAFTAs Slam Social Media Prankster Who Crashed ‘Oppenheimer’s’ Best Film Speech: ‘We Are Taking This Very Seriously’ (EXCLUSIVE) Variety
- BAFTA Says It Ejected Audience Member Who Crashed Stage During ‘Oppenheimer’ Best Film Win PEOPLE
- BAFTA: ‘Prankster’ Crashed ‘Oppenheimer’ Acceptance Speech IndieWire
- Prankster goes on stage unnoticed with Oppenheimer cast at Baftas The Times
Tag Archives: prompting
Critical Atlantic Ocean current system is showing early signs of collapse, prompting warning from scientists – CNN
- Critical Atlantic Ocean current system is showing early signs of collapse, prompting warning from scientists CNN
- The crucial tipping point scientists say could cause Atlantic Ocean collapse The Washington Post
- Atlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point, study finds The Guardian
- AMOC current from ‘Day After Tomorrow’ is on path to collapse: Study USA TODAY
- Atlantic Ocean is headed for a tipping point − once melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we would see extreme climate change within decades, study shows The Conversation
Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales kisses player during World Cup celebrations, prompting outcry – Yahoo Sports
- Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales kisses player during World Cup celebrations, prompting outcry Yahoo Sports
- England, Spain shine in World Cup final after Gianni Infantino comments The Washington Post
- This will be the moment when everything changed for the Women’s World Cup FOX Sports
- England fell in love with this team but Spain serve up bittersweet ending The Guardian
- Luis Rubiales: Spanish soccer chief faces criticism after giving World Cup winner Jennifer Hermoso a surprise kiss on the lips after she receives gold medal CNN
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US hits debt ceiling, prompting Treasury to take extraordinary measures
CNN
—
The US hit the debt ceiling set by Congress on Thursday, forcing the Treasury Department to start taking extraordinary measures to keep the government paying its bills and escalating pressure on Capitol Hill to avoid a catastrophic default.
The battle lines for the high-stakes fight have already been set. Hardline Republicans, who have enormous sway in the House because of the party’s slim majority, have demanded that lifting the borrowing cap be tied to spending reductions. The White House countered that it will not offer any concessions or negotiate on raising the debt ceiling. And with the solution to the debt ceiling drama squarely in lawmakers’ hands, fears are growing that the partisan brinksmanship could result in the nation defaulting on its debt for the first time ever – or coming dangerously close to doing so.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Thursday, informing him that the nation’s outstanding debt is at its statutory limit of $31.4 trillion and that the agency will implement extraordinary measures so it doesn’t default on its debt, which would have enormous consequences on the US economy, global financial stability and many Americans. She said the measures would expire on June 5.
This buys Congress some time – but how long the extraordinary measures can last is subject to “considerable uncertainty,” she wrote, stressing that it’s a challenge to forecast how many financial obligations the federal government must pay and how much revenue it will take in months into the future.
“I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” she wrote.
The announcement follows the warning Yellen sent last week about the approaching debt limit and the temporary Band-aid of the extraordinary measures.
But her missive has failed to spark bipartisan discussion so far. Instead, both Republicans and Democrats reaffirmed their rigid positions over the past week.
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese on Thursday repeatedly called on Congress to meet the United States’ obligations by raising the debt limit, warning against “economic chaos” that could ensue should Congress fail to do so.
“This is about economic stability versus economic chaos,” Deese told Kaitlan Collins on “CNN This Morning,” calling it Congress’ “basic, fundamental obligation.”
He added, “Even just the specter that the United States might not honor its obligations does damage to the economy.”
McCarthy must walk a fine line since any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, one of several concessions he made to gain the top post after 15 rounds of voting earlier this month.
For now, he is leaning on using the debt ceiling crisis to cut spending and balance the US budget. On Tuesday, McCarthy rejected Democratic calls for a clean debt ceiling increase without any conditions attached – something Congress has done time and again, including under then-President Donald Trump. The speaker told reporters on Capitol Hill that the Biden administration should begin to negotiate ahead of this summer, when the US could default.
“Why wouldn’t we sit down and change this behavior so that we would put ourselves on a more fiscally strong position?” McCarthy said.
President Joe Biden and McCarthy have not yet spoken Thursday about the debt limit, according to an official familiar with the dynamic.
Hard-right GOP Rep. Andy Biggs went even further in a tweet on Tuesday, writing, “We cannot raise the debt ceiling. Democrats have carelessly spent our taxpayer money and devalued our currency. They’ve made their bed, so they must lie in it.”
The White House on Wednesday blasted the Arizona Republican’s “stunning and unacceptable position” and once again rejected calls to reduce spending as part of a debt ceiling deal.
While there were no meetings with congressional leadership to announce at this time, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the administration has been reaching out “to all members, from both sides of the aisle,” but, “there will not be any negotiations over the debt ceiling– we will not do that, it is their constitutional duty.”
The debt ceiling, which is the maximum amount the federal government is able to borrow to finance obligations that lawmakers and presidents have already approved, was last raised in December 2021. Created more than a century ago, it has become a way for Congress to restrict the growth of borrowing – turning it into a political football in recent decades.
Increasing the cap does not authorize new spending commitments.
Treasury will start using two extraordinary measures to allow it to temporarily continue financing the federal government’s operations, Yellen wrote on Thursday. They are mainly behind-the-scenes accounting maneuvers.
As part of the debt issuance suspension period, the agency will begin to sell existing investments and suspending reinvestments of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. Also, it will suspend the reinvestment of a government securities fund of the Federal Employees Retirement System Thrift Savings Plan.
These funds are invested in special-issue Treasury securities, which count against the debt limit. Treasury’s actions would reduce the amount of outstanding debt subject to the limit and temporarily allow it to continue paying the government’s bills on time and in full.
No federal retirees or employees will be affected, and the funds will be made whole once the impasse ends, Yellen wrote.
As part of his concessions, McCarthy promised to pass a proposal by the end of March telling Treasury which payments should be prioritized if the debt ceiling is breached, GOP Rep. Chip Roy confirmed to CNN last week.
Roy, a Texas Republican who is one of the key players in the standoff over McCarthy’s speakership, cautioned that the contours of the proposal are still being worked out, noting there are several different versions of a payment prioritization plan circulating inside the House GOP.
But choosing to pay one set of obligations over another could spark legal challenges, as well as political and ethical quandaries. For instance, lawmakers would have to decide which to pay first – Social Security monthly payments to the tens of millions of senior citizens and Americans with disabilities, salaries of federal workers and the military or the interest on US debt to a multitude of investors, many of them foreign.
Winter storm barrels into Sierra Nevada, prompting avalanche warning
A winter storm packing high winds and potentially several feet of snow blew into the Sierra Nevada on Saturday, triggering thousands of power outages in California, closing a mountain highway at Lake Tahoe and prompting an avalanche warning in the backcountry. The storm is expected to bring as much as 4 feet of snow to the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe by Monday morning, the National Weather Service said.
A 250-mile stretch of the Sierra from north of Reno to south of Yosemite National Park was under a winter storm warning at least until Sunday.
“Travel will be very difficult to impossible with whiteout conditions,” the weather service said in Reno, where rain started falling Saturday.
A flood advisory was in effect from Sacramento to the California coast near San Francisco.
Caltrans via AP
The storm will impact the California coastline into the southwest this weekend with “heavy to excessive rainfall along the Golden State coastal areas and widespread heavy snow from the Sierra into much of the intermountain West,” the National Weather Service said in a statement. The excessive rainfall will affect the central California coast on Saturday, and Southern California around the greater Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Sunday.
The U.S. Forest Service issued an avalanche warning for the backcountry in the mountains west of Lake Tahoe where it said “several feet of new snow and strong winds will result in dangerous avalanche conditions.”
A stretch of California Highway 89 was closed due to heavy snow between Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe, California, the highway patrol said. Interstate 80 between Reno and Sacramento remained open but chains were required on tires for most vehicles.
More than 30,000 customers were without power in the Sacramento area at one point Saturday morning. It had been restored to all but about 3,300 by midday. But forecasters warned winds gusting up to 50 mph could bring down tree branches and power lines later in the day.
About 10 inches of snow already had fallen at Mammoth Mountain ski resort south of Yosemite where more than 10 feet of snow has been recorded since early November.
“It just seems like every week or so, another major storm rolls in,” resort spokeswoman Lauren Burke said.
The storm warning stretches into Sunday for most of the Sierra, and doesn’t expire until Monday around Tahoe.
As much as 18 to 28 inches of snow was forecast through the weekend at lake level, and up to 4 feet at elevations above 7,000 feet with 50 mph winds and gusts up to 100 mph.
On the Sierra’s eastern slope, a winter weather advisory runs from 10 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. for Reno, Sparks and Carson City, with snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches on valley floors and up to 8 inches above 5,000 feet.
The system will become a “large-scale and significant storm early next week” across the central and southern U.S. with heavy snow, rain and severe weather, according to the weather service. The snow is expected to spread into the mountains of the central Rockies and Arizona Sunday, with totals of 6 to 12 inches anticipated through early Monday morning, the weather service said.
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano is erupting, prompting an ashfall advisory for the Big Island
CNN
—
An ashfall advisory is in effect Monday for Hawaii’s Big Island and surrounding waters until 6 a.m. HST (11 a.m. ET) after Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began erupting in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Up to a quarter inch of ashfall could accumulate on portions of the island.
“People with respiratory illnesses should remain indoors to avoid inhaling the ash particles and anyone outside should cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth,” the National Weather Service in Honolulu warned.
“Possible harm to crops and animals. Minor equipment and infrastructure damage. Reduced visibility. Widespread clean-up may be necessary,” it added.
The eruption is not threatening downhill communities or flights to the Island of Hawaii, the Hawaii Tourism Authority tweeted Monday morning.
Lava flows are contained in the summit area and do not threaten downslope communities, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. Winds may carry volcanic gas and fine ash downwind.
“Based on past events, the early stages of a Mauna Loa eruption can be very dynamic and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly,” the observatory said, adding, “If the eruption remains in Moku’āweoweo, lava flows will most likely be confined within the caldera walls.
“However, if the eruptive vents migrate outside its walls, lava flows may move rapidly downslope.”
The eruption began in Moku’āweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, on Sunday around 11:30 p.m. HST (4:30 a.m. ET Monday), according to the observatory.
Mauna Loa, which covers half the island of Hawaii, has erupted 33 times since 1843, the volcano’s first “well-documented historical eruption,” according to the US Geological Survey. It last erupted in 1984, making this prolonged quiet period the volcano’s longest in recorded history.
The volcano has recently been in a heightened state of unrest, per the agency, which pointed in an update late last month to elevated seismic activity and increased earthquake rates.
Earthquake activity increased from five to 10 earthquakes a day since June 2022 to some 10 to 20 earthquakes a day in July and August, according to the US Geological Survey. Peak numbers of more than 100 earthquakes a day were recorded on September 23 and September 29, CNN has reported.
The increased activity prompted Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in October to close the Mauna Loa summit to all backcountry hikers until further notice, though the US National Park Service said the main section of the park has remained open.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Eastern Time equivalents for the ashfall advisory and eruption.
Toxic smog engulfs India’s New Delhi, prompting closures
As the smog descended on Delhi and the surrounding areas, officials on Friday ordered schools, factories and construction sites closed and banned diesel trucks from bringing nonessential goods to the capital. About half of the city’s government employees were urged to work from home.
The WHO estimates that millions die annually due to air pollution, and recognizes it as the world’s largest environmental health threat. IQAir, a Swiss air quality company, ranked New Delhi as the most polluted capital in 2021.
Air pollution has been linked to heart diseases, a higher risk of stroke and lung cancer, and in 2019 was the leading cause of death in India, according to government data.
Siddharth Singh, the author of “The Great Smog of India,” tweeted that, unlike immunity developed from a virus or a vaccine, “the human body cannot get used to air pollution,” as “the particulate matter enters your lungs, your bloodstream, and then lodges itself in your organs.”
Both the state and federal governments in India have faced criticism for failing to tackle the air pollution problem. And as the crisis mounted this week, regional politicians tried to blame each other for the health hazard.
In a news conference on Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Delhi and Punjab should not be held responsible for the smog, which he called “a northern India issue.”
He said that there would be no solution without joint state and federal action, adding that the six months since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed a government in Punjab was “not enough” for the government to implement solutions.
India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, however, blamed the northern Punjab state for failing to stop farmers from burning crop residues, writing on Twitter that “there is no doubt over who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber.”
In a Twitter thread in October, Vimlendu Jha, environmentalist and founder of the youth organization Swechha, said the Delhi government lacks “political will and urgency.”
The central and state governments “have FAILED to find a medium to long term solution to this problem,” Jha wrote, “often stopping at just blaming the farmers and passing the buck, instead of farm reforms, crop rotation incentives, technology assistance etc.”
The crisis comes as India’s government called Friday for rich countries to deliver on their pledge of providing $100 billion in annual climate finance to developing countries — and to increase the amount at the U.N. climate conference next week.
Masih reported from New Delhi.
Storm lashes Alaskan shore, bringing severe coastal flooding and prompting evacuations
CNN
—
The remnants of Typhoon Merbok have been battering Alaska’s western coast since late Friday, bringing flooding powerful enough to uproot buildings and forcing residents to seek shelter.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Saturday declared a disaster for impacted communities as heavy rains lashed the coast, filling roadways with water and debris.
By Saturday night, the governor was reporting impacts to roads, oil storage and possibly sea walls. Authorities were still assessing whether the storm affected water supplies and sewage systems in the state’s western towns, Dunleavy said in a Saturday night briefing.
About 450 residents in coastal communities have sought shelter in schools, according to Bryan Fisher, director of the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
There were no reports of injuries or fatalities related to the storm as of Saturday night, said Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe of the Alaska National Guard, adding that “there likely will be a military response” with aircraft ready to help with evacuations if necessary.
Water continues to surge early Sunday, with levels expected to peak above the high tide line of 3-5 feet at Deering, 4-6 feet at Kotzebue, and 5-7 feet at Shishmaref and Kivalina, according to the National Weather Service.
“These are concerning numbers,” NWS tweeted.
Coastal flood warnings continue across the western and northern coasts of Alaska through Sunday as several locations see extremely high water levels, according to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
The water will remain at or near peak levels for up to 24 hours in some locations. Winds are expected to weaken as the storm pushes inland but water levels along the coast are expected to remain elevated through Sunday.
The storm is shaping up to be the state’s strongest in over a decade, according to forecasters.
Creating a “very angry sea” in the city of Nome, according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, the storm has brought “waves and storm surge pushing into the community.”
The water level is still going up and is expected to peak Sunday afternoon before slowly receding, affecting the city’s population of over 9,800 people.
The water level in Nome stood at 8.47 feet Saturday night, down from a high of 10.52 feet earlier in the day. The levels exceeded those seen during significant storms in 2011 and 2004, according to the National Weather Service.
A floating building hit a 300-gallon tank in Nome around 6 p.m. local time, resulting in a spill, according to Jason Brune, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The scale of the spill was still unknown Saturday night.
Nome resident Simon Kinneen said he was driving past Snake River in the Belmont Point area when he saw a home float away.
“The wind came up high enough to float the house and the wind and surge blew the house to the northwest,” he told CNN.
In a video taken by Kinneen, an entire house is seen floating on the river before it gets lodged between the river and a nearby bridge.
In Golovin, where a few homes floated off of their foundation, residents were evacuated to a local school on higher ground Saturday, authorities said.
“Water is surrounding the school, homes and structures are flooded, at least a couple homes floating off the foundation, some older fuel tanks are tilted over,” the National Weather Service in Fairbanks tweeted.
Golovin has a population of about 175, according to the US Census Bureau and is located south of the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
China Growth Slows Across All Fronts in July, Prompting Unexpected Rate Cut
SINGAPORE—China’s economy stumbled in July as a two-month boost from easing lockdowns faded, prompting the country’s central bank to unexpectedly cut two key interest rates in an effort to shore up faltering growth.
A raft of data released Monday showed economic activity slowed across the board in July, including factory output, investment, consumer spending, youth hiring and real estate, highlighting the breadth of the economic challenge facing policy makers in a politically sensitive year for leader
Xi Jinping,
who is expected to break with recent precedent and seek a third term in power this fall.
The fresh evidence of China’s slowdown adds to the headwinds facing the global economy this year, which is already reeling from the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and efforts by central banks in the U.S., Europe and beyond to tame rocketing inflation by jacking up borrowing costs.
The world’s second-largest economy is straining under the effects of Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 and a deflating property bubble, which have triggered protests and mortgage-payment strikes in several provinces and cities. Consumers are reluctant to spend and businesses are wary of investing, a consequence of the “humongous uncertainty about the future,” said
Alicia García-Herrero,
Asia-Pacific chief economist at investment bank Natixis in Hong Kong.
One stark sign of China’s economic malaise: One in five Chinese youth, or 19.9%, was unemployed in July, Wednesday’s figures showed, the highest level since China started publishing such data in 2018.
On Monday, the People’s Bank of China cut by 0.1 percentage point two key interest rates and pumped the equivalent of $59.3 billion into the financial system to rev up lending and wider economic growth. The unexpected move marked a small step toward more support for China’s economy, and may foreshadow further cuts to borrowing costs in the months ahead, some economists said.
Job seekers lining up in Shanghai.
Photo:
Cfoto/Zuma Press
But overall, officials have signaled they are unpersuaded by the need for more forceful policy action, mindful of risks such as rising inflation and ballooning debt. Senior Chinese leaders have effectively dropped a growth target of around 5.5% for the year, and the question now for many economists is just how feeble growth is likely to get.
Data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics Monday showed industrial production rose 3.8% from a year earlier in July, easing from a 3.9% year-over-year increase in June and well short of the 4.5% growth expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Factory output and exports have been a bright spot for Chinese growth for the past two years, especially after production resumed and supply-chain kinks were worked out following the lifting of lockdowns imposed in the spring to contain Covid-19. But economists have long expected demand for Chinese goods to begin to fade as consumers in the West feel the pinch from rising prices and interest rates.
Retail sales, a key gauge of consumer spending, grew 2.7% from a year earlier in July, a weaker reading than the 3.1% recorded in June and the 5.0% increase expected by surveyed economists.
Growth in retail sales in July was little more than half what economists expected.
Photo:
Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News
Consumer confidence has been rocked by the threat of repeated lockdowns and China’s property bust. Separate data released Monday showed new home prices posted their steepest year-over-year decline in more than six years in July, highlighting the strain in the real-estate market after a yearlong regulatory squeeze that has hit sales and led to stalled projects and developer defaults.
Average new-home prices in 70 major cities fell 1.67% in July from a year earlier, compared with June’s 1.29% decrease, according to Wall Street Journal calculations based on data released Monday by China’s statistics bureau.
On a month-on-month basis, average new-home prices fell for an 11th consecutive month. Prices dropped 0.11% in July from June, widening from the previous month’s 0.10% decline, the statistics bureau said. Only 30 of the 70 cities recorded a month-over-month increase in home prices in July, down from 31 cities in June.
Officials have pinned their hopes for an economic revival this year on lavish government spending on infrastructure, but data so far suggest the benefits of that push have been limited, likely reflecting financing strains on the provincial governments tasked with implementing the policy, economists say. Fixed-asset investment slowed in July, rising 5.7% on year in the January-July period, compared with the 6.1% pace recorded in the first half of the year. Economists had expected growth of 6.2%.
The unemployment rate for those age 16 to 24 rose to 19.9% in July, from 19.3% in June, setting a record. The overall jobless rate edged down, however, to 5.4% from 5.5%.
Senior Chinese Communist Party officials announced no new fiscal stimulus measures at a meeting late last month and pledged to stick with their zero-tolerance approach to managing Covid outbreaks, while appearing to drop their official goal of increasing gross domestic product by around 5.5% this year. Many economists expect China to record growth of around 3% to 4% in 2022.
—Grace Zhu and Bingyan Wang in Beijing contributed to this article.
Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com
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Another wave of extreme heat targets Europe, prompting alerts
Amber warnings, the second-highest level, have been hoisted in southern parts of England by the U.K. Met Office.
In mid-July, the Met Office issued its first-ever red warning for “extreme” heat, with more than 40 weather stations surpassing the previous record 101.7 degrees (38.7 Celsius) in Britain. Several stations even spiked to 104 degrees (40 Celsius), a feat that was made 10 times more likely because of human-caused climate change.
A large stretch of western and northwestern Europe will be affected by the upcoming heat wave, with the risk of wildfires accompanying the spiking temperatures. It follows Europe’s sixth-hottest July on record.
Driving the heat is a ridge of high pressure, colloquially known as a heat dome, which will be parked directly over Britain by Tuesday night into Wednesday. In addition to bringing hot, sinking air, it will deflect any inclement weather — making for incessant sunshine.
In Britain, temperatures are expected to peak Friday into Saturday before easing next week. Highs will generally range between 85 and 95 degrees (29 to 35 Celsius), although a few locales may approach 96 or 97 (35.5 to 36 Celsius). It’s unlikely that anyplace will hit the century mark.
A Level 3 out of 4 heat wave action alert has been issued by health officials, who urged residents to “look out for others, especially older people, young children and babies and those with underlying health conditions.” Officials also recommended that the public limit alcohol consumption.
The Met Office is forecasting that London will see highs in the upper 80s to near 90 (30 to 32 Celsius) Thursday through Sunday. Showery weather will arrive to kick off the workweek. The average early August high temperature in London is closer to the lower 70s (low 20s Celsius).
Met Éireann, Ireland’s equivalent to the U.S. National Weather Service, also issued a weather advisory for the country, warning of “heat stress, especially for the more vulnerable of the population,” in addition to a high UV index. It’s worth noting that relatively few residents have air conditioning installed in their homes.
Eighteen departments in France also are under orange heat alerts, and Météo France is calling for temperatures in southwestern parts of the country reaching 97 to 102 degrees (36 to 39 Celsius), with an isolated 104-degree (40 Celsius) reading not improbable.
Paris is predicted to hit 93 on Wednesday, 92 on Thursday and 94 for Friday.
In Spain, which had its hottest July on record, an orange warning for heat is in effect just south of Madrid — where maximum temperature could approach 104 degrees, with many other areas under yellow alerts. But the core of the heat dome should remain farther north in western Europe.
Exacerbating the heat is ongoing severe drought, plaguing many parts of western Europe.
According to climate historian Maximiliano Herrera, it was record dry in some parts of England, including in London. He tweeted that the city had seen “virtually no rain” during the month of July, with less than a millimeter recorded. July typically features closer to 1.8 inches (45 millimeters) of precipitation, with an average of 8 rainy days during the month.
July 2022 in the United Kingdom had an average temperature of 16.6C ,+1.3C above the 1991-2020 normal. It was record dry in parts of England,including London where virtually no rain fell (less than 1mm). Only Northern Scotland had near normal conditions. Maps by UK Met Office. pic.twitter.com/gklXW8VvsW
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) August 8, 2022
The Met Office reported 13 counties across southern and eastern England posted their driest July on record.
There are concerns that the hot, dry atmosphere, combined with parched antecedent conditions, could support the risk of wildfire. The Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service wrote that fire risk “is now very high to exceptional” and that firefighters were especially busy over the past weekend. They urged individuals participating in outdoor recreation to avoid campfires and bonfires.
#EFFIS Fire Danger Forecast for 9 August
🔥Very Extreme Danger forecasted in a few areas of 🇪🇸🇵🇹🇧🇬 🇫🇷🇬🇷& 🇹🇷
🔥Extreme Danger remains forecasted in parts of:
🇫🇷🇵🇹🇪🇸🇮🇹🇦🇹🇸🇮🇭🇷🇧🇦🇲🇪🇽🇰🇲🇰🇬🇷🇦🇱🇹🇷🇩🇿🇹🇳🇲🇦More at👇https://t.co/2PjdHyXOpI pic.twitter.com/wehXjqwACO
— Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS) August 9, 2022
France is also enduring an exceptional drought, one of its worst on record, according to Météo France. Rainfall was the country’s lowest observed in July and 85 percent below normal.
Nearly 40,000 residents in France were forced to evacuate from wildfires during the third week of July, with similar blazes raging in Spain and Greece.
The very dry conditions are again generating a very high fire danger, especially in southern France.
While the core of the heat will be situated over southern Britain and France from Thursday through Sunday, above-average temperatures will also swell from the Netherlands through southern Scandinavia. The heat will retreat from western Europe early next week shifting toward Eastern Europe.
It’s well-established that human-caused climate change is amplifying the severity, duration and frequency of high-end heat events. In addition to the ultrarare heat that baked Britain last month, a similar-magnitude event brought record-shattering temperatures, including a high of 109 degrees in Paris, in late July 2019.
Jason Samenow contributed to this report.