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WEATHER

Paris: Authorities trigger emergency heatwave plan as capital continues to sizzle

Level three of France's heatwave plan has been triggered for Paris as temperatures in the French capital are expected to reach a 36C this week.

Paris: Authorities trigger emergency heatwave plan as capital continues to sizzle
Photo: AFP
The plan contains four levels: green, yellow, orange and red. 
 
Paris is currently on orange or level three, triggered when an alert has been issued by the health authorities after an evaluation by national weather agency Meteo France and health watchdog institute, Institut de Veille Sanitaire (INVS), as a result of a heatwave that is expected to last until Thursday. 
 
The plan is intended as a way of informing people to take action to protect the groups most vulnerable in the hot weather, which has seen Paris and the south west on orange heatwave alert for the past few days.
 
These groups include the elderly or disabled members of the population, as well as people who work outside. 
 
READ ALSO:

People sunbathing near the Trocadero fountain in Paris during the current heatwave. Photo: AFP 
 
“Preventing risk is everybody's business,” the representative in charge of the elderly at the Paris townhall, Dominique Versini, said. “I am asking Parisians to go to their vulnerable neigbours and remind them of the measures that they should be taking during hot temperatures.”
 
Vulnerable people registered on the city’s “Chalex” file will be contacted by telephone to find out how they are and remind them of precautionary measures to combat the heat.
 
Social workers and voluntary doctors will also be on hand to help those who need it and refreshment rooms will be opened in public places such as district halls.
 
CLICK HERE for the list of locations.
 
French authorities take heatwaves extremely seriously, and it's little wonder. Back in August 2003, a heatwave killed 15,000 mostly elderly people across the country. 
 
Most of France is sizzling under scorching temperatures at the moment, with 51 departments now on heatwave alert, including the entire greater Paris region of Ile-de-France.  
 
The warnings come soon after meteorologists at Météo France predicted that the month of June could be one of the top three hottest on record.

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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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