Hot spell set to last

Maximum temperatures in Poland - in the shade - were 30 degrees and are expected in many places to rise to up to 36 degrees.

The worst hit will be the cities, which create “heat islands,” the institute said.

The current heat wave has hit only Poland, but also Portugal, Spain, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany. In Madrid on Friday the temperature jumped to 41 degrees

“The heat wave that has flooded Europe and the western part of the United States [record temperatures and fires have been recorded in Alaska and Canada], have come after the deadliest heat wave in India and Pakistan,” Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of the Institute for Climate Impact Research in Potsdam (PIK) in Germany said. “Such extreme weather events are currently being seen due to human-induced global climate change.”

Dr. Dim Coumou also of PIK explained that the current heat wave in Europe has been caused by a high pressure system that pulls in hot and dry air from the Sahara. “This atmospheric circulation that has appeared in recent years more often probably has something to do with large air masses circulating like a meandering river around the northern hemisphere. Our research indicates that this summer this ‘river’ is weakening and such situations as the present one are becoming more likely.” (jh)