So much for a refreshing dip! The waters off the coast of Nice have never been warmer and the temperature is likely to rise further in the coming days. 

The phrase “like bath water” has never been more true. On Tuesday 18th July, as the Charon heatwave took hold in the French Riviera, a marine buoy off the coast of Nice registered a record sea temperature for the area of 29.2°C. 

Experts have warned that these high sea temperatures could go up even more, perhaps reaching 30°C, in the coming days as weather forecasts predict a protracted hot spell in the Mediterranean.  

LAND NO BETTER 

The orange alert for much of the region remains in effect on Wednesday 19th July following a record-buster of a day and will continue until midnight Thursday 20th July.

On Tuesday 18th July, the town of Puget-Théniers saw the thermometer rise to 41.8°C, higher than any other day since record keeping began in 1947. The previous record stood at 41.1°C.  

The Alpes-Maritimes town of Caussols above Grasse also broke a record, hitting 30.6°, while temperatures in Aups in the Var climbed to 38.6°C. Both of these temperatures are about 8°C above seasonal norms for the respective towns. 

Since 2000, heat waves have been five times more frequent in France and experts predict that they will be twice as frequent as today within the next three decades, with climate change being the direct cause.  

It is estimated that over 60,000 people died in Europe in last summer’s heat waves.  

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Photo source: Tristan Miment, Pixabay