Rhodes wildfire update today: Nine European nations battle wildfires as Met Office warns UK could be next

Wildfires are burning in at least nine countries across southern Europe and North Africa, with thousands of firefighters working to contain the blazes.

At least seven people have been killed in Italy as it battled both extreme heat and violent storms. In the north, Milan residents reported torrential rain and hail with a 16-year-old girl killed after a tree fell on her tent. Meanwhile in the south, the heatwave reached 47.6C with three people found dead in Sicily.

In Greece, authorities have evacuated more than 20,000 from homes and resorts in Rhodes, while 2,500 have been evacuated in Corfu. Two pilots died when their plane crashed into the hillside in Evia, while the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country was “at war” with fire.

Nearly 100 firefighters have worked to contain a wildfire close to Nice airport in France, while 300 firefighters battled fires near the city of Arles.

Local media reported that winds were so strong in Croatia that firefighting aircraft could not take off, while wildfires have been reported in the south of the country.

Fires in Spain continue to pose a problem following two weeks of extreme hear, with a blaze in Gran Canaria reaching just metres from an air traffic antannae and prompting the evacuation of hundreds.

Wind has also caused issues in Portugal as firefighters tackle a large blaze near the tourist hotspot of Cascais, with water-bombing planes used to reduce the spread.

Meanwhile in North Africa, at least 34 people have been killed in Algeria, with fires burning in a total of 15 provinces and 1,500 people evacuated from their homes. Among those killed were 10 soldiers who became trapped by flames.

Strong winds have resulted in fires spreading to neighbouring Tunisia, with two border crossings closed in an attempt to contain the blaze.

Southern European countries suffering from a sizzling heatwave for weeks can finally hope for some respite as a new forecast reveals “subtle changes in the jet stream” that are expected to bring temperatures down.

With shattered temperature records, devastating wildfires in Greece and tragic loss of lives, people have been anxiously awaiting relief from intense heat conditions that gripped Europe this month.

The latest forecast from the UK’s Met Office offers a glimmer of hope as conditions are projected to shift slightly, indicating the weakening of the heat dome that enveloped the southern part of the continent.

Wildfires continue to burn across at least nine countries in Europe and North Africa, forcing mass evacuations as firefighters battle on in tinderbox conditions.

Greece, France, Portugal, Spain, Gran Canaria, Italy, Croatia, and Turkey have seen raging fires this week as extreme heat billows over the countries.

The Greek Fire Brigade has already been battling more than 500 fires for almost two weeks, while the high temperatures of the recent new heatwave are set to exceed 44C in some areas of Greece.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain has more.

In its annual State of the UK Climate report, the Met Office analysed the weather of 2022 and warned temperatures higher than 40C, summer droughts, grassfires and downpours will increase in both frequency and severity.

A severe heatwave gripped the country last summer, as a new temperature record was set (40.3C) and numerous wildfires were reported across Britain. More than 3,000 heat-related deaths were recorded in England and Wales during five “heat periods” between June and August 2022, according to a joint report by the Office of National Statistics and the UK Health Security Agency.

While 2022 was an “extraordinary” year for the UK in terms of weather and climate, the Met Office said these conditions “are a potential warning of what we should expect in the future” as a result of human-caused climate change.

Maanya Sachdeva has more.

British tourists on an easyJet flight to Rhodes have said they refuse to let wildfires ruin their holiday – despite thousands of others heading back home from “holiday hell”. Andy Gregory reports:

But climate science and fire-risk specialists say it’s undeniable that rising temperatures and prolonged heatwaves mean the fires in the Mediterranean country have spread faster and burned over larger areas:

A tourist broke down in tears as she detailed how she and her family managed to escape the Rhodes wildfires with the help of locals.

“It was so awful, it was like Dante’s Inferno,” LBC caller Jane, from Preston, explained.

Italy has announced measures to help families and businesses hit by extreme climate events, as the country reels from a heatwave in the south and fierce storms in the north.

Giorgia Meloni’s administration approved a decree to help construction and agricultural firms keep staff at home in areas with very high temperatures.

The decree allows building and farming companies, both severely hit by the heatwave because their workers cannot work from home, to use the instrument without the hours being counted in the overall limits.

“The measure will be valid for this year,” labour minister Marina Calderone said.

The heatwave over most of the south took a particularly heavy toll on the island of Sicily, which was devastated by wildfires that killed three people.

Catania, below Mount Etna in eastern Sicily, has been hit by power and water supply cuts that officials blamed in part on the heat.

More than 40 people have been killed in wildfires that have engulfed swaths of land in nine Mediterranean countries, destroying homes and livelihoods and threatening forests, amid one of the world’s fiercest heatwaves:

Greek wildfires released a record 1 megaton of carbon emissions between 1 and 25 July, the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) says.

That was nearly double the previous record, set in July 2007.

Carbon emissions accelerate the climate crisis, which scientists say has intensified the heatwaves.