1 CLIMATE CRISIS
Zero-degree line at record height as Europe heats up
A Swiss weather balloon had to climb to an unprecedented 5,300 metres before the temperature fell to 0C, meteorologists have said, as a late-summer heatwave and wildfires continue to pummel swathes of continental Europe.
A man was found dead in a blaze raging north of Athens on Monday as the Greek government warned of an “extreme” risk of fire across the country, while more than half of mainland France was placed under an amber heat alert.
MétéoSuisse said the zerodegree line – the altitude at which the temperature falls below freezing – was measured at 5,298 metres overnight.
The figure, registered by a weather balloon flown from Payerne in western Switzerland, constituted “a record since monitoring began in 1954”, the service said, and surpassed the previous high of 5,184 metres that was “only set in July last year”.
The oC line “affects vegetation, the snow line and the water cycle, so has a considerable impact on the habitats of humans, animals and plants alike”, MétéoSuisse said. It had averaged 2,570 metres above sea level from 1991 and 2020, fluctuating between 3,000 and 4,000 metres in summer.
2 CANADA
Armed forces sent in to tackle fast-spreading fires
Armed forces were sent in to tackle fast-spreading wildfires in British Columbia, as more than 35,000 people were put under evacuation orders.
The western province imposed a state of emergency
