“Firefighters battled a number of large blazes on Wednesday as Israelis sought to stay cool during an intense heatwave that set records for highest recorded temperatures in July…
“At Beit Dagan in central Israel and Negba in the south, the highest ever temperatures in July were recorded, while the 41°C (105°F) in the Gaza area was also the highest ever documented during July.
“With Israelis trying to stay cool amid the heat wave, Israel Electric Corporation officials said electricity usage reached an all-time peak…”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-hit-by-record-breaking-heatwave-fires-rage-throughout-country/
“Massive thunderstorms with the downpour and hail on July 25 flooded the roads and underpasses [of Kyiv, Ukraine], causing huge traffic jams citywide and a complete standstill downtown.”
“As the death toll from Greece’s worst forest fires continued to climb, survivors at Athens’ biggest hospital described the terror and anguish wrought by one of the country’s most devastating blazes in modern times.”
“Newly-released images from space have highlighted the effects of this month’s heatwave on parts of northern Europe… One shows how vegetation in northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden has turned brown in just the last month.”
http://www.euronews.com/2018/07/25/these-pictures-put-northern-europe-s-heatwave-in-perspective
“With huge, dominating areas of high pressure stretching from mid Russia to the mid Atlantic – essentially creating a blocked weather pattern where no fresher air can penetrate and no real heat is lost by night – the Great British Summer of 2018 shows every sign of going down as the hottest and driest since records began.”
http://www.itv.com/news/2018-07-25/weather/
“Extreme weather that’s gripping northern Europe and parts of Asia may persist through early August, prolonging a deadly heatwave that’s parched crops and sparked devastating forest fires.”
“…the Swedish Forest Agency estimates 1 billion Swedish kronor’s ($113,705,000) worth of Swedish wood has gone up in flames so far, Dagens Nyheter reports. And that figure is set to rise even further. ”The fires are still out of control…”
“The weather this year has been so strange. In March, there was still a heavy fall of snow, up to 4ft, considerably more than normal. The winter was long and harsh but the neighbours say that the shift to summer was sudden; there was no spring. The temperatures suddenly rose to 25 degrees or so, the snow melted and since then there has been hardly any rain. In Stockholm many of the deciduous trees such as birches are already fully in autumnal mode, in July – their leaves yellowed and falling.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-arctic-is-burning-1.3576157
“Rounds of torrential rain and serious flooding inundated the northeastern United States this week causing two of Pennsylvania’s most popular amusement parks to close.”
“Amid all the wildfires we’ve had this year already in the Tri-Cities, there’s also been some pretty spectacular sights. One of those is a fire devil — a column of superheated air and flames that shoots into the sky. They’re sometimes called fire tornadoes or firewhirls.”
https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article215516035.html
“A sidewalk on West Alameda Street collapsed as the earth beneath crumbled in the flow of water. Newly planted saplings in the Santa Fe River were uprooted and crushed. “I’ve never seen it this fast, that furious,” said Dr. Jodi Lang, an author whose east-side dirt road became a furious flooding river, exposing gas lines. “We had whitewater rapids here.””
“The temperature reached a record high in Phoenix on Wednesday for a third consecutive day.”
http://ktar.com/story/2152585/phoenix-temperature-reaches-record-high-for-third-straight-day/
“Jongdari is expected to strengthen as it tracks toward Japan and achieves typhoon status prior to reaching the country.”
“Troops searched for survivors in the remote southern tip of Laos on Thursday, three days after the collapse of a hydropower dam sent a torrent of water across paddy fields and through villages, as rescuers rushed aid to thousands of homeless.”
“Thousands of people in northeastern Cambodia are being evacuated on Thursday as authorities scramble to cope with floodwater from the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam collapse in Laos that flowed south over the border.”
“More than 16,000 people are thought to have been displaced by floods following heavy monsoon rains in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The flood began at the weekend and worst hit the country’s eastern Kayin state on the border with Thailand.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44962585
“”The health dangers associated with extreme heat and humidity remain grossly underappreciated,” said Horton. “As temperature and humidity rise in the future, more and more regions will experience conditions in which outdoor labor is dangerous, and air conditioning is essential.””
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-summer-bad-future.html
But on the plus side.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/heatwave-perfect-moment-joys-naked-nudism
