Extreme heatwave live: Texas city confirms first heat death; northern hemisphere boils in severe weather | Climate crisis

Temperatures continued to reach extreme highs across many parts of the northern hemisphere on Monday.

The mercury in parts of Italy is poised to hit 45C on Tuesday and wildfires raging in Greece and Spain are signalling the latest fierce warning of the effects of the climate crisis, report the Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Helena Smith in Athens.

In Italy, where temperatures later in the week could push close to the European record of 48.8C, set in the Sicilian town of Floridia in August 2021, Italians were warned to brace themselves for “the most intense heatwave of the summer and also one of the most intense of all time”.

As heatwaves engulfed the globe, temperatures in California’s Death Valley, often among the hottest places on Earth, approached a world record on Sunday after reaching 53.3C.

China on Sunday issued several temperature alerts, warning of 39C in southern Guangxi region and 40-45C in the partly desert region of Xinjiang, where a temperature of 52.2C was recorded in the remote Sanbao township. In Japan, 60 people were treated for heatstroke as temperatures in the country reached highs of 39.1C.

In a stark warning to world leaders earlier on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, wrote on Twitter: “In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record. And these records have already been broken a few times this year. Heatwaves put our health and lives at risk. The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It’s happening. I urge world leaders to act now.”

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Joanna Walters

Local authorities in Guangdong province, southern China, have ordered the closure of 68 coastal tourist destinations and called back 2,702 fishing vessels as Typhoon Talim hits, Reuters reports that the Xinhua news agency is stating.

The authorities have also ordered many thousands of workers on offshore fish farms in the area to be evacuated. Earlier, it was confirmed that almost a quarter of a million people had been evacuated to safety ahead of the typhoon’s landfall in China.

For our global readers, it’s worth reminding everyone that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), a federal government agency, notes that “the only difference between a hurricane and a typhoon is the location where the storm occurs.”

Hurricane season is under way in the North Atlantic the climate crisis and El Niño pattern are bringing named storms earlier and likely to make them more fierce, especially as ocean temperatures warm relatively dramatically.

Noaa notes that hurricanes and typhoons are the same weather phenomenon: tropical cyclones.

The agency adds:

Once a tropical cyclone reaches maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or higher, it is then classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical cyclone, depending upon where the storm originates in the world.

In the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific, the term hurricane is used. The same type of disturbance in the Northwest Pacific is called a typhoon. Meanwhile, in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, the generic term tropical cyclone is used, regardless of the strength of the wind associated with the weather system.

Typhoon Talim became the first typhoon to make landfall in China this year, hitting the country on Monday evening local time and prompting authorities to issue flood warnings, cancel flights and trains, and order people to stay at home, Reuters reports. The storm sideswiped Hong Kong earlier.

The news agency further reports:

Talim, the fourth typhoon of the year, made landfall at 10.20pm local time (1420 GMT) in Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province, with winds near its centre clocked at a top speed of 136.8 kph (85 mph), according to Guangdong weather bureau. Winds stronger than 150 kph would put Talim in the severe typhoon category, very rare for a typhoon this early in the rainy season.

Talim is expected to move at a speed of 20 km per hour northwest and into Guangxi region early on July 18, Guangdong weather bureau added. China’s meteorological centre forecast gale force winds in seas near southern provinces and regions and exceptionally heavy rains of 250-280 mm (9.8-11 inches) on the southwestern coast of Guangxi and northern Hainan Island. Parts of Guangxi were told to brace for flash floods through Tuesday.

Houston, Texas has just confirmed its first heat-related death.

Victor Ramos, 67, was found in his home in south-west Houston, which did not have air conditioning. He died on 24 June in hospital. Ramos’ sister Karla told local Houston news outlet KHOU that her brother Ramos could not afford to fix his broken AC unit since he was let go from his job in March.

In nearby Pearland, Texas, Felipe Pascaul, 46, also died from the heat on 16 June. Pascaul was pouring concrete on a construction job site when he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital but did not survive.

The news comes after Texas governor Greg Abbott approved a law in June that eliminated water breaks for construction workers mandated by cities and counties in the state.

The state has seen 14 heat-related deaths this year as of June. Last year, 306 people died in connection to the dangerously high temperatures in Texas.

Texas’s most populous city and the fourth most populous city in the US, Houston is one of many around the country, particularly in the southwest, placed on a heat advisory.

Joanna Walters

The relentless heatwave across the southern US continues to scorch Texas, with dangerous conditions.

Amid the risk to people’s health, especially those obliged to be outside in the heat, soaring demand for energy is putting strain on the system – although, as the Guardian reported late last month, renewable power sources are helping the state maintain energy reliability, contrary to some of the state’s lawmakers claims that clean energy is less reliable.

This week could break records for demand, though, with homes and business keeping their air conditioners cranked, as Reuters reports:

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state’s power load, has said it has enough resources available to meet soaring demand.

Texas residents have worried about extreme weather since a deadly storm in February 2021 left millions without power, water and heat for days as Ercot struggled to prevent a grid collapse after the closure of an unusually large amount of generation.

Although overall US power demand is projected to ease in 2023 after hitting a record high in 2022, rising economic and population growth is expected to keep boosting electric use in “Sun Belt” states like Texas.

After setting 11 demand records last summer, Ercot forecast usage would hit 83,732 megawatts (MW) on Monday and 85,237 MW on Tuesday this week. That would be the fourth record high this summer. One megawatt can power around 1,000 US homes on a typical day, but only about 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas.

• The UK government’s new plan to cope with the climate crisis has been condemned as “very weak” by experts, who say not enough is being done to protect lives and livelihoods.

• South East Water has reported a pre-tax loss of nearly £75m, which it blamed in part on the cost of dealing with last year’s “extreme weather events” including the record-breaking heatwave. The water firm, which supplies 2.2 million customers, said the weather events cost it £17m.

• Five people have been killed and two children remain missing after flood waters tore through parts of south-eastern Pennsylvania over the week during the latest round of violent storms to hit the region.

• China has confirmed a record temperature of 52.2C (126F) in the north-west of the country on Sunday.

• Italian health officials intensified heat warnings as the mercury in Rome was forecast to near 40C (104F).

• California’s Death Valley, often among the hottest places on Earth, reached a near-record 52C on Sunday.

• Firefighters are battling wildfires in the Canary Islands and Greece.

• The US climate envoy, John Kerry, is in Beijing in an effort to show that the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases have renewed their focus on tackling the climate crisis.

• South Korea’s president has vowed to “completely overhaul” the country’s approach to extreme weather from climate change, as the death toll from flooding and landslides rose to 40.

• Schools and the stock market were closed in Hong Kong on Monday as Typhoon Talim sideswiped the city and headed toward landfall on the Chinese mainland and the island province of Hainan.

• Villagers in the south-east of Athens were ordered to leave their homes on Monday as a wildfire burned nearby, Greek authorities said. On Monday, the blaze burnt quickly through brush and spread south toward the Attica region and the resorts of Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Saronida.

• Scientists have warned that a marine heatwave off the coasts of the UK and Ireland poses a serious threat to species. The Met Office has said that global sea surface temperatures in April and May reached an all-time high, and June is likely to follow suit.

Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point on Sunday on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said.

Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 128F (53.3C) on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134F (56.7C) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognized as keeper of world records. Temperatures at or above 130F (54.4C) have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley.

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Wild fires rage south of Athens amid urgent pleas to evacuate

Helena Smith

Wild fires raging close to seaside resort settlements south of Athens have destroyed untold numbers of homes and cars. Over the past hour dramatic scenes have unfolded in the coastal resorts of Lagonissi, Saronida and Anavyssos as blazes fanned by high-speed winds have moved in.

Despite Greek authorities issuing precautionary evacuation orders, latest reports indicate that people have been trapped in homes in Lagonissi. Mega TV showed footage of horses and dogs trapped in a riding club in Anavyssos.

Saronida’s longtime former Mayor Petros Philippou told local media: “ The fire is continuously moving threateningly and right now it is above Saronida. People have to leave these areas immediately with care and with calm.”

Firefighters are now fighting on multiple fronts after a blaze broke out in the Kouvara area of eastern Attica earlier today. Panic-stricken Athenians, many of whom have second homes in the area, have rushed to check properties adding to traffic chaos as others flee.

Blazes have also erupted in Corinth and Boeotia with firefighting planes, helicopters and trucks deployed to the areas. Syriza, the left-wing main opposition party, said its thoughts were with all those now at risk of seeing “everything they had spent a lifetime” working [to achieve] lost to the flames. The civil protection ministry is to hold an emergency meeting with firefighters and other forces.