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WEATHER

France braces for 40-degree heatwave

Temperatures in some parts of France will reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend, forecasters predicted on Thursday, triggering an alert system set up after 15,000 people died in a heatwave in 2003.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine said a level 2 alert on the 1-3 heatwave warning system would be issued to ensure the public was aware of the need to

ensure the well-being of the elderly, babies and other people particularly vulnerable to unusually high temperatures.

"We have to be careful not to cause panic but at the same time make sure everyone is taking sensible precautions," the minister said.

State forecasting body Meteo France expects temperatures to reach 40 degrees in south-western and central France with figures in the high 30s in
much of the rest of the country.

France introduced its heatwave warning system in 2004, a year after 15,000 mostly elderly people died in an unexpected and sustained spell of unusually
hot weather.

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WEATHER

Denmark records deepest snow level for 13 years

Blizzards in Denmark this week have resulted in the greatest depth of snow measured in the country for 13 years.

Denmark records deepest snow level for 13 years

A half-metre of snow, measured at Hald near East Jutland town Randers, is the deepest to have occurred in Denmark since January 2011, national meteorological agency DMI said.

The measurement was taken by the weather agency at 8am on Thursday.

Around 20-30 centimetres of snow was on the ground across most of northern and eastern Jutland by Thursday, as blizzards peaked resulting in significant disruptions to traffic and transport.

A much greater volume of snow fell in 2011, however, when over 100 centimetres fell on Baltic Sea island Bornholm during a post-Christmas blizzard, which saw as much as 135 centimetres on Bornholm at the end of December 2010.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s January storms could be fourth extreme weather event in three months

With snowfall at its heaviest for over a decade, Wednesday saw a new rainfall record. The 59 millimetres which fell at Svendborg on the island of Funen was the most for a January day in Denmark since 1886. Some 9 weather stations across Funen and Bornholm measured over 50cm of rain.

DMI said that the severe weather now looks to have peaked.

“We do not expect any more weather records to be set in the next 24 hours. But we are looking at some very cold upcoming days,” DMI meteorologist and press spokesperson Herdis Damberg told news wire Ritzau.

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