Smoke and flames rise as aerial and ground extinguishing works continue for wildfires in Seferihisar district of Izmir, Turkiye, on Monday. MEHMET EMIN MENGUARSLAN/GETTY IMAGES
More than 50,000 people have been evacuated from the path of wildfires in Turkiye as extreme heat continued to cause blazes and health emergencies all across southern Europe.
Most of the evacuations in Turkiye were in the western Izmir Province, with high winds adding to the problems and causing the temporary closure of Izmir airport.
In recent times, high temperatures and widespread fires have become an increasingly frequent summer hazard across southern Europe, and currently extreme conditions are being experienced in Portugal, Greece, Spain, France and Italy.
"Extreme heat is no longer a rare event, it has become the new normal," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote from Seville in southern Spain on Monday, as temperatures were expected to hit 42 C.
Marisol Yglesias Gonzalez, technical officer for climate change and health at the World Health Organization in Bonn, Germany, added: "It's no longer a question of if we will have a heat wave, but how many are we going to experience this year and how long will they last".
Extreme temperatures were also expected in Portugal. In some parts of Italy, outdoor work activities have been banned during the hottest times of the day. One man reportedly died at a construction site in the city of Bologna, and another was washed away in flash flooding near Turin.
France is expecting to see temperatures peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, but over the weekend, extreme heat caused wildfires in the southwestern Aude region, forcing the evacuation of a campsite and causing major land fires.
Many schools were closed and the top of Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists because of the heat. On Saturday, national weather forecasting bureau Meteo France reported that for the first time ever, the peak of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain, gave June temperature readings above freezing.
Mont Blanc is 4,809 meters high but the local branch of Meteo France said it had to reach to go up to 5,135 meters for a reading of 0 C. "This is a record for June since measurements began," the office said. "It had never been measured above 5,000 meters at this time of year."
Richard Allan, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, told the BBC that increasing levels of greenhouse gases made it harder for the planet to lose excess heat.
"The warmer, thirstier atmosphere is more effective at drying soils — meaning heat waves are intensifying, with moderate heat events now becoming extreme," he explained.
Retailers in the UK have also blamed climate change and extreme weather events for fueling a sharp rise in the price of fruit and vegetables, because of the impact on harvests. The British Retail Consortium said annual food price inflation rose to 3.7 percent in June, up from 2.8 percent in May.
