Europe's Changing Weather

BUCHAREST 21 Jul- Temperatures across central and southwest Europe threatened to top 42 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) on Saturday in a heat wave that has killed nine people in Romania and caused havoc from Hungary to Greece.

While the region sizzled, parts of northern Europe shivered in unseasonably fresh weather and flash flooding forced Britain to call out its Royal Air Force to rescue hundreds of people stranded in central England.

Poland was hit by a tornado, which is rare in Europe. News channel tvn24 showed roofs ripped off farmhouses and barns and cars destroyed near the southern Polish city of Czestochowa on Friday night.

At least 7 people were injured and hundreds left without power.

"Suddenly I saw the trees outside swaying violently and looked out to see a brown funnel approaching. We all took cover just in time," one middle-aged man told tvn24.

In Romania, Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said two people had died in the last 24 hours as temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius, raising the death toll this week to nine.

Meteorologists said temperatures could get even higher in Romania's southern regions on the Danube river border with Bulgaria, where forest fires have ravaged thousands of hectares (acres) of land.

Bulgarian government officials said Russia was sending an airplane that can carry up to 40 metric tons of water to join the operations to stop one huge fire in the southeast from spreading further.

The fire sent huge clouds of smoke and dust over a nearby city of Stara Zagora with authorities warning thousands of residents to keep their windows shut and only go out wearing masks or wet towels.

Dozens of children were forced to flee their summer camp near the Greek city of Corinth this week when a huge brush fire threatened to engulf their compound.

Greece has been badly hit by forest fires over the past month as it swelters in its hottest summer in more than a century. Three fire-fighters were killed in a blaze on the island of Crete.

In Britain, hundreds of motorists were stranded in their cars on a major highway on Friday after one of the biggest downpours of an already wet summer.

"We've seen a month's rainfall for July fall in day," said a Meteorological Office spokesman.

In central England, thousands of people were taken to emergency centers.

"We've rescued in excess of 100 people by air," a Royal Air Force spokeswoman said. "We've picked people out of rivers or who were stranded on bits of land cut off by water as well as rescuing people from caravan rooftops."

There appeared to be no immediate let-up in the waves of rain across northern Europe, nor in the heat wave further south.

In Hungary, the heat has caused disruptions on railway and tram lines as tracks and power lines were damaged by the heat.

But few in the crowd at a Rolling Stones concert in Budapest's main Puskas stadium complained on Friday as organizers sprayed water over them to keep them cool.

Yes, the wettest summer I can remember here in the UK for sure. Many many floods all around the country, particularly the midlands around Worcester, and in the N.East in Yorkshire area.

In other places in the world the weather is also a bit crazy; for example, on July 9th, a strange snow fell in Argentina (first time since 1918). That same week, a cold wave from southern Brasil to southern Bolivia, caused an energy crisis.

The government have promised millions of pounds to help out. Insurance will of course cover much of the damage to homes and businesses, though many weren`t insured unfortunately, and there`ll be a lot more than just homes and businesses to have to rebuild.

Bridges, schools, water treatment works, roads etc have all suffered in various parts of the country. I have a friend in Gloucestershire who is now having to go outside to a big tank of water and fill bottle and buckets then boil the water before it can be drunk. Many supermarkets have run out of bottled water too. His home isn`t flooded, but the water treatment works which services the area is now underwater.

It`s just shown on the news that there are around 140,000 people in the Gloucestershire area without running water, and that`s expected to last for up to 2 weeks.

A lot are also without electricty due to downed power cables, and sub-stations being knocked out by the water.