Heat waves at peak in Western Europe

Temperatures in Western Europe could cross 100 degrees Fahrenheit and heat waves in France remind the summer of sixteen years before when thousands of people died.

According to the European Union’s Emergency Response Coordination Center, heat wave could be at a peak by Thursday noon and temperatures to jump beyond 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

The World Meteorological Organization cautioned that in some places the temperature could rise above 104 degrees.

The extreme weather is being caused by the warm air masses from Africa, said EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The first country to feel the intense weather is Spain and gradually the heat wave would spread across the continent.

JRC added the high temperatures would remain until the end of June and early July.

According to CBS News meteorologist Jeff Berardelli this is an atmospheric traffic jam condition.

He added, “There’s an extreme atmospheric steering pattern across the Atlantic… Instead of moving quickly west to east, the jet stream is very amplified, trapping weather systems in place [and] creating an atmospheric traffic jam. Because of this, a large storm system is stuck in the eastern Atlantic, west of Europe.”

Meanwhile, Paris has come up with extreme heat plan. There were about 15,000 heat-related deaths in France in 2003.