Sawt Falasteen - French government holds crisis meeting as heatwave mounts

Senior civil servants from Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's office as well as the interior, health, agriculture and transport ministries attended the meeting, the office told AFP.

Paris has been stepping up hot-weather protection measures this summer after the intense heat and fierce wildfires of 2022.

On Friday it will launch an information hotline and begin broadcasting public information messages on the television and radio, said Borne's office.

Seven of mainland France's 96 departments are already on alert for summer storms and intense heat, and another 12 will join them on Friday, mainly in the east and south of the country.

Over the weekend, temperatures in the regions of Languedoc and Provence in the south could rise as high as 41C, said meteorologist Christelle Robert of Meteo France.

Forecasters expect the high temperatures to continue into early next week.

- Heat dome -

A "heat dome" trapping new hot air arriving from the south is expected to form in the coming days.

Heat will spread into central and northern France as well, with temperatures of 35C forecast for Paris.

Thermometers will not begin to fall until "the middle or even the end of next week", said Meteo France.

Meteorologists have even suggested that France could see its most intense heatwave ever -- outstripping 2012's record.

The public health authority SPF said Thursday that at least 30 more deaths than normal had occurred during a July heatwave in the southeastern Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, on top of 80 in a first episode in June.

More than 4,800 deaths were attributed to heat in France last summer, out of 61,000 across Europe.

- Fire risk -

With the extreme heat comes an increased risk of fires breaking out.

A wildfire in France that triggered the evacuation of more than 3,000 people from holiday campsites in the Pyrenees-Orientales department bordering Spain Monday night destroyed around 500 hectares (1,200 acres).

France is not the only European country mobilising to deal with the challenges posted by extreme weather conditions.

Storms in southwest Germany late Wednesday dumped huge quantities of water and reportedly unleashed over 25,000 bolts of lightning in about an hour.

The country's biggest airport, in Frankfurt, was forced to cancel 90 flights and reroute another 23.

The huge wildfire ravaging the Spanish holiday island of Tenerife -- off the northwest coast of Africa -- has burnt through more than 2,600 hectares of land.

Wildfires have wrought havoc in several countries in southern Europe over the summer.

Researchers at the World Weather Attribution group last month reported that heatwaves in parts of Europe and North America would have been almost impossible without climate change.

Y.Shaath--SF-PST