(Bloomberg) -- Thunderstorm alerts were issued from the UK to the French Riviera, while heat blankets a swath of central Europe.
Summer heat across Europe is giving way to extreme weather events from violent storms and flooding to wildfires. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves, warming the Mediterranean Sea to record temperatures and turbo-charging storms across the region.
There’s a yellow warning for storms across northern England, Wales and eastern Scotland, with the potential for as much as 80 millimeters (3.2 inches) of rain in places, according to the Met Office.
A red alert for thunderstorms is in place for parts of southern Germany, including Nuremberg and Regensburg. Temperatures across the country will climb in the coming days, with Berlin reaching a maximum of 32C (90F) or above on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The storms and fires that have battered Greece over the past three days should ease on Monday. Athens and the surrounding Attica region, Peloponnese and parts of Crete were particularly hard hit as 139 wildfires were logged in the 72 hours to 6:30 pm on Sunday.
In some places, such as the island of Evia, thunderstorms triggered both flooding and wildfires as lightning struck scorched pine forests. Tourists and locals were ordered not to swim at many Greek beaches, with 53,892 lightning strikes across the country on Saturday alone.
Isolated storms are still forecast in the east Aegean Sea, central Peloponnese and the northeast mainland on Monday.
While it’s been Greece’s worst wildfire season in two decades in terms of outbreaks, there has been just one major blaze — on the outskirts of the capital in August — after the deployment of drones and cameras accelerated response times.
Last month, the Greek government announced €4.3 billion ($4.8 billion) of projects for climate mitigation and adaptation, including initiatives aimed at protecting forests and further reducing fire risks.
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