France prepares to break heat records as fires progress

France was bracing Monday for what could become one of the hottest days ever recorded in its history, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in tourist coastal regions as wildfires intensified in the country’s west and south.
“The peak of this heat wave is expected on Monday,” Météo-France said in a statement, forecasting temperatures of between 40 and 42 degrees and “higher in some local areas” across France’s western Atlantic coast.
“The day could become one of the hottest ever recorded in France,” the French weather service said, adding that temperatures could be in the unprecedented 40s in the Breton port of Brest in the country’s northwest.
During the day a new national record of average temperature could be set throughout the day, which is now at 29.4 degrees, reached in the historic heat waves of 2003 and 2019.
Thick plumes of smoke could be seen from the famous beaches of the French Atlantic coast near the imposing Pyla dune, in the vicinity of Arcachon, as strong winds and high temperatures continued to fuel the forest fires. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin sent three additional planes to the region to fight the fire.
Fires in the region have spread over more than 14,000 hectares, the local state prefecture said in a social media message Monday morning, adding that injuries have been reported.
France on Sunday issued a red alert for several regions, the highest possible, and called on the population to “exercise extreme vigilance.”

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Original source in Spanish