Hungary heatwave kills Up to 500 people

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times and Global Warming

Hungary heatwave kills Up to 500 people *

Budapest is having a hotter summer than last year

Up to 500 people have died in the past week from a heatwave in Hungary,
a top health official has said.

Anna Paldy, deputy director of the National Institute of Environmental
Health, told the BBC that the figure included 230 deaths in central Hungary.

The deaths - from 15 to 22 July - were caused by heatstroke,
cardiovascular problems and other illnesses aggravated by the heat, she
said.

Some 30 people have also died in the heatwave in neighbouring Romania.

Ms Paldy told the BBC News website that the death rate from heat in
Hungary was the highest in recent years.

The daily mean temperature in the past week had reached 30C, she said.

In the southern city of Kiskunhalas, the temperature reached a record
high of 41.9C.

The data came from hospitals and doctors in Budapest and the county of
Pest, which the researchers then extrapolated for the whole country.

Regional woes

South-Eastern Europe is reeling from the hot weather, which has been
blamed for widespread forest fires and has also caused economic hardship.

Forest fire in Greece
Forest fires have raged across Greece amid soaring temperatures

In Serbia, the agriculture ministry says 30% of the country's annual
harvest has been destroyed because of the heat, with the wheat, soya and
vegetable crops worst hit.

Parts of northern Europe have meanwhile seen vast floods and heavy
rainfall - sparking fears that climate change may be to blame for the
extreme weather.

Unusually high temperatures of more than 40C (104F) have been recorded
in several parts of southern and eastern Europe.

Maps: Why this summer has seen such extreme weather

On Monday, temperatures of 45C (113F) were recorded in Bulgaria - the
hottest since records began, officials said.

Hundreds of forest fires have been reported in Greece, where two pilots
died on Monday after a water-bombing aircraft they were flying over a
forest fire crashed.

Another such aircraft flying over a forest fire in Italy crashed on
Monday, killing three people.

In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, thousands of firefighters,
soldiers and local people battled throughout Monday night to stop a
forest fire from reaching the country's second-largest city, Bitola.