July was “a wild weather month,” setting a record as the warmest month ever for the contiguous United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday. Temperatures last month averaged 76.9 degrees Fahrenheit as above-average warmth blanketed the U.S., and several locations in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana saw all-time high temperature records since…
Italy placed all of its major cities under the highest heat alert Thursday as a blistering heat wave gripped Europe. The heat has set a national temperature record in Austria, fueled wildfires in France and disrupted energy and transport systems across the continent. Temperatures have climbed to above 104 degrees Fahrenheit in several countries, prompting…
As the Danube River breaks new record lows across much of its nearly 1,800-mile stretch through eastern Europe, curiosities of the past — including woolly mammoth bones in Bulgaria, sunken Nazi warships in Serbia and unexploded WWII artillery in Hungary’s capital — are emerging. But there’s also an energy crisis unfolding for Hungary’s nearly 10…
At ski resorts across the West this winter, viral images showed chairlifts idling over brown terrain in places normally renowned for their frosty appeal. Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring water shortages…
Ege-Cap Ferret, France — French authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to go back to their homes in southwest France, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in their battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris. The…
The death toll has grown to at least 34 people in southwestern Japan after a powerful earthquake on Tuesday, according to the prefectural government of Kumamoto, on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu, where the quake struck. The disaster destroyed homes, triggered an explosion at a mall and caused a factory chimney to collapse. Two days…
Two firefighters died Wednesday while battling a blaze on the Greek island of Crete, officials said, while crews in southern France worked to extinguish a massive, uncontained wildfire that had spread to roughly four times the size of Paris. Across Europe, firefighters confronted a dangerous combination of high temperatures, drought and powerful winds, compromising containment…
Paris, France — Luggage-clad residents and tourists fled the French peninsula of Cap Ferret by boat and the smell of smoke drifted into parts of Spain’s capital Madrid on Friday as wildfires swept through multiple parts of western Europe, triggering states of emergency and calls for EU help. Some 40,000 people have been evacuated in southwestern…
At least 5,700 more people than usual died in France last month, as the country endured a historic heat wave, French public health officials said. That figure represented a sharp increase in the estimated death toll nationwide from June and early July’s record temperatures. Public Health France said regions hit by the heat from June 17…
