The northern hemisphere starts at one today new hot weekwith temperatures above 40° in Italy and a heat alert in Spain, while forest fires continue to rage in Canada and California.

Temperatures above 48°C expected in the first days of the week in Sardinia and Rome is expecting highs of 40°C today and 42°C tomorrow, according to the Italian Air Force meteorological service.

In Spain, emerging from a week of sweltering heat, the weather service has issued an orange alert warning of temperatures of 38° to 42° across large parts of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, as well as a red alert in Andalusia and Aragon for today , Catalonia and Mallorca for tomorrow (42° to 44°).

In the Canary Islands, a fire burned huge areas over the weekend and caused the removal of 4,000 people from their homes.

In France, temperatures will reach 40° tomorrow in the southeastern part of the country, according to Météo-France. The rest of France is relatively protected from the new heat wave.

In Europe, where the increase in temperature is progressing at a rate twice as fast as the global average, according to experts, many countries are affected.

In Italy, 16 cities are on red alert, with temperatures of 36/37°C forecast, but sensible temperatures may exceed 40°.

In Romania, temperatures will reach 39°C.

Fires in Canada

In the United States, much of the southern part of the country is affected by a heat wave characterized by “suffocating” from the meteorological services, which predict record high temperatures.

In Death Valley in California, one of the hottest regions on the planet, the warmest showed on Saturday night 51°C .

In addition to very high temperatures, fierce fires in southern California have already burned vast areas and forced the evacuation of communities.

In Florida, the city of Miami issued the first “extreme heat” warning in its history. “Prepare for extreme temperatures,” the municipal authority warned via Twitter.

Elsewhere in the US there is a risk of severe thunderstorms. “Severe storms, rainfall and flooding are possible in many areas, particularly, unfortunately, New England, which has already been affected by recent rainfall,” the National Weather Service warns.

In Canada, where vast tracts of land have burned this year, 906 wildfires remain active and 570 are considered uncontrollable, according to the Canadian Interagency Center for Wildfires. Two firefighters have lost their lives while fighting wildfires in recent days in Canada.

Extreme events in Asia

Heatwave warnings have been issued in Japan for tens of millions of residents in 20 of the country’s 47 prefectures, which have been hit by record high temperatures. Japan is also dealing with a wave of heavy rains, with at least eight people dead.

In South Korea, rescuers are trying to reach people trapped in a flooded tunnel. The heavy rains of the last few days have caused at least 37 deaths, while 9 people are missing.

A series of warnings have been issued by China’s meteorological services, with temperatures expected to reach 45°C in the semi-arid Xinjiang region and 39°C in the southern Guangxi region.

Heat is one of the deadliest meteorological phenomena, reminds the World Meteorological Organization. Last summer, in Europe alone, high temperatures caused 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.