A red alert for extreme temperatures is in effect across the entire Basque Country, leading many local councils to cancel the traditional San Juan bonfires usually held on June 23rd. In the French Basque Country, schools have been closed, and the Town Hall of Bayonne has established climate-controlled shelters.
The intense heat, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in Europe due to climate change and phenomena like El Niño, has resulted in the cancellation of bonfires in towns such as Pamplona, Berango, Urretxu, Gernika, Barakaldo, Muxika, and Sopela. The Basque Government has left the decision to the municipalities, while the Government of Navarre has advised local authorities against holding the fires.
Measures have also been taken to protect children and the elderly. Centers of the Haurreskolak Consortium will remain closed until Thursday in Álava, Vizcaya, and Guipúzcoa. In Bayonne, the Town Hall, responsible for public school buildings, has ordered their closure and is utilizing the air-conditioned rooms of the Jean-Dauger rugby stadium as shelters for children.
Experts attribute this heatwave to factors linked to climate change, including the El Niño phenomenon and a potential collapse of the North Atlantic's AMOC current. The European association ClimaMeter indicates that without climate change, temperatures in Paris would be 2.4 degrees Celsius lower, and in other parts of Europe, 4 degrees lower.
The rise in nighttime temperatures is exacerbating 'thermal stress'. In Ordizia, for example, the minimum temperature on Tuesday night did not drop below 26.4 degrees Celsius. A study published in Nature Climate Change reports that suffocating nights are now 3.4 times more frequent in Europe, and globally, approximately one billion people are experiencing 'severe thermal stress'.
As with other climate-related disasters, the impacts of heat disproportionately affect poorer countries and vulnerable populations. According to the Lancet Countdown report, around 546,000 people die annually as a result of heat.
