France
A tornado tears through a village in southern France, injuring 39 and wrecking 300 homes
PARIS | A tornado ripped through a small village in southern France, damaging about 300 homes, destroying several cars and injuring dozens of people, authorities said Tuesday. The tornado struck Pomas, a village of about 1,000 people, on Monday and rescue teams were continuing their search through ruins on Tuesday, though no people were immediately […]
UK and France prepare for another heat wave as western Europe sets new temperature record
PARIS | The U.K. and France are bracing for the fifth heat wave of the season, adding to an intense stretch of hot weather that has repeatedly sent temperatures soaring across Europe since May. National weather agency Météo-France is warning about temperatures approaching 40 C (104 F) from Tuesday onward in southeastern France. And in […]
Climate change created conditions for Canada fires, scientists say, as Trump blames mismanagement
Human-caused climate change doubled the likelihood of the tinderbox weather conditions that sparked Canada’s massive summer wildfires and in turn angered U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a study released Thursday. And fire and climate scientists said Trump, who has talked about punishing Canada for poor fire management and sending days of choking smoke across […]
Europe heat wave puts all major Italian cities on red alert as Austria sets heat record
ROME | Italy placed all of its major cities under the highest heat alert Thursday as a blistering heat wave gripped Europe, setting a national temperature record in Austria, fueling wildfires in France and disrupting energy and transport systems across the continent. The extreme weather has pushed temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in […]
Dry, hot summers are putting Dutch dikes at risk and threatening German river trade
WADDINXVEEN, Netherlands | Jeroen Wouda and Dirk Boom walk slowly along a Dutch dike, prodding at the bone dry surface with metal rods and scanning the parched grass for patches of green that could give away the location of a leak. In a scene that brings to mind the fictional Dutch boy who heroically plugs […]
As France tames wildfire and lets 84,000 evacuees go home, blazes flare across Europe
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France | France gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to return to home, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in a grueling battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris. But blazes flared elsewhere across […]
France orders 4,000 more evacuated as fires displace a third of a million across southwest Europe
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France | French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 more people to evacuate Tuesday from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast as returning heat threatened firefighters’ fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux. The blaze in the Gironde region has burned an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people […]
France says monster fire that forced 220,000 people to flee has stopped growing
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France | Fire crews and planes wrestled Monday to bring a monster wildfire under control in southwest France before a forecast jump in temperatures complicates the massive firefighting effort against a blaze that has burned an area four times the size of Paris. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the fire had stopped growing, […]
Wildfires in France drive 250,000 people from their homes and creep toward wine city of Bordeaux
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France | A raging wildfire in southwest France forced the evacuation of 55,000 people overnight Sunday, bringing the total forced out of their homes to a staggering 220,000 in one region alone, as flames crept ever closer to the wine region city of Bordeaux. Neighboring Spain oversaw its own fire evacuations on the […]
Tens of thousands of people flee raging wildfires in France and Spain, some escaping by boat
ARCACHON, France | Large forest fires burned out of control in southwestern France and central Spain on Friday, prompting authorities to evacuate an estimated 87,000 people from their homes. Some even fled by boat when flames swept through the touristic Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s Atlantic coast. Dozens of firefighters were injured, authorities said. Some […]