The region’s Environment Minister Oliver Krischer said that although there is currently “no shortage of water … in times of climate change with long periods of heat and drought, even the largest supplies will eventually run out.”
Residents of the Iberian Peninsula have struggled to sleep with nighttime temperatures remaining above 20 degrees Celsius. Portuguese authorities have expressed concerns the heat could raise the risk of wildfires in the southern Algarve region, a key tourism hub.
Similarly sweltering conditions were registered in England, where temperatures in London climbed to 35.1C on Tuesday, far above the previous May record. All-time highs were also reported in Ireland.
Peter Thorne, director of the ICARUS Climate Research Center at Ireland’s Maynooth University, described it as “mind-bogglingly crazy” that the records were being exceeded by a large margin.
“To break the all-time May record by more than 2 degrees, a week out from the end of the month when we’d expect records to be set, is hard to comprehend,” he said.
Stiell, meanwhile, urged governments to step up efforts to ditch planet-warming fossil fuels.
“Protecting human lives, businesses and economies from extreme heat and the many other soaring costs of climate change is core business for every nation, and it starts with kicking the fossil fuel addiction much faster,” he said.
Forecasters prodict the record-setting heat wave will abate this weekend. In Brussels, temperatures are set to rise to 31C on Friday before cooling substantially.