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Beijing/Paris/Sacramento, California: As Europe and America continued to feel the heat yesterday, South Asia faced severe storms. The California heatwave blamed for at least 56 deaths simmered into an 11th day yesterday as residents waited for a promised temperature drop to end their misery. An hour before sunrise, the temperature had already hit 29 Celsius at the Central Valley city of Bakersfield, where the mercury peaked on Tuesday at 44 Celsius, the National Weather Service said. The weather service predicted temperatures around the state would be lower by several degrees but that would still leave the temperature well above 38 Celsius in many areas. A slow cooling trend was expected to continue through the week.
Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the power grid, said the ISO did not anticipate declaring another power emergency yesterday. Europe baked again yesterday under a relentless sun with temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius, though forecasters were promising temporary relief would come with storms and cooler weather in the next few days. In France the mercury was set to climb to 39 Celsius in the Rhone valley while Parisians faced a sticky 36 Celsius. The heatwave has claimed an estimated 40 lives in Europe over the past two weeks but there has been no repetition of the massive loss of life in the heatwave of 2003 when in France alone 15,000 died. The heat was blamed for the deaths of a man of 87 and a woman of 89 in the northern Italian city of Turin during the night Tuesday, the Italian ANSA news agency reported, adding that there was a heavy call on hospitals during the night with many people wanting to stay in their air-conditioned buildings. Temperatures were near 40 Celsius in the city. The death in Barcelona in northeast Spain of a woman of 83 brought the toll in that country to nine. In Belgium temperatures were set to reach between 32 Celsius and 36 Celsius inland and 29 Celsius on the coast and there were warnings of high levels of air pollution. Further north in the Netherlands the heatwave has led to a rise in the number of workers calling in sick, figures from one of the leading organisations handling health issues for Dutch companies, De Arbo Unie, show. But the scene was entirely different in China. Typhoon Kaemi lashed southern China with heavy rains and strong winds killing nine and forcing the evacuation of over half a million people yesterday. Two girls were killed in southern Guangdong province after their house collapsed under a landslide in the early hours of yesterday. "The family of six were buried. The two granddaughters aged 9 and 6 died," the government in Wuhua county said on its website, "Their two brothers and grandparents were injured." In the Philippines, nearly 31,000 people were still unable to return to their homes in Manila and the northern areas of the country due to flooding from Kaemi. Two people were feared dead after they reportedly drowned. Short takes
Air pollution warning A health warning has been issued a high temperatures produced dangerous levels of air pollution in urban areas of Britain. Satellites tracking temperatures and ozone emissions showed a build-up of nitrogen dioxide in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Concentrations of the gas, which causes breathing difficulties to which elderly and asthmatics are vulnerable, reached four to five times their normal levels last week in London. The last of the tens of thousands of Queens residents and businesses affected by a days-long power outage had their electricity restored yesterday morning, according to a spokeswoman for the utility. At the height of the outage, which lasted for 10 days, about 100,000 people went without lights, air conditioning and refrigeration. Europe's shops and supermarkets will face a shortage of vegetables later this year as a result of the current heatwave, a leading industry group warned yesterday. According to OEITFL, which represents Europe's fruit and vegetable processing industry, shop owners must prepare for the likelihood of empty shelves, fridges and freezers as a result of the unusually hot temperatures that have gripped Europe. Britain's heatwave is draining consumers' appetite for shopping, according to weekly data from business information group Footfall. The group said shopper numbers had fallen for the second week in a row down 0.9 per cent between July 17 and 23 with the year-on-year figure 5 per cent weaker, taking the level below 2005 for the first time in July.
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