The Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South Eastern Europe REReP Record

July heat proves deadly in CEE As the United Kingdom experienced serious flooding in mid to late July, a strong heatwave from Africa caused dangerously high temperatures in many parts of Central and Eastern Europe and pressed health and emergency services to the limit. The excessive heat was blamed for an estimated 500 deaths in Hungary alone. Thermometers soared to 46°C (115°F) in parts of Serbia and Greece, and reached 45°C (113°F) in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Macedonia. Average temperatures in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania during the heat wave were between 35°C and 40°C (95°F and 104°F). Hungary’s chief medical officer, Ferenc Falus, told the press that excessive heat in central Hungary during July 15–22 “contributed to the early deaths of 230 people, which nationally means about 500 deaths.” Pal Gyorfi, a Hungarian emergency services spokesman, claimed that calls for ambulances during the week were up 30 percent, and double the normal rate when temperatures peaked on Friday, July 20. Romania’s health minister acknowledged that at least 27 heat-related deaths had occurred in that country, with hundreds of people collapsing in the street from heat exhaustion—most of them elderly and suffering from circulation problems. Meanwhile, European fire-fighting units struggled to cope with thousands of forest and brush fires. Hungarian teams were called to battle blazes on 3,000 occasions—two and a half times the national average, according to the Financial Times. It was also reported that up to 1,800 separate forest fires were burning throughout the week in Bulgaria, and that it was necessary to request assistance from Russia to provide fire-fighting planes. It has also become clear that the July heat was a heavy blow to farmers and the agricultural sector, but the cost and scale of the damage has yet to be determined. Later in the summer, high temperatures and arson were blamed for devastating fires in Greece that claimed dozens of lives.

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