Europe Having At Least A Lousy Weather Summer As United States And Canada

Large swaths of Greece, especially the island Rhodes,
are on fire after a persistent, record breaking heatwave

 You might have seen glimpses of extreme weather news from Europe in between reports of relentless heat waves in some parts of the United States and extreme floods and storms in other sections of America.   

To confirm, yes, it's a weather summer from hell in much of Europe, too. 

It's kind of the same story as in the United States. Horrible heat and wildfires in the south, storms just a little further north and east. 

Let's take a miserable European tour here:

GREECE 

A long heat wave in Greece has led to scary wildfires, especially on the islands of Rhodes and Corfu. 

At least 19,000 residents and tourists fled Rhodes as the wildfires tour through hotels and resorts on the island.

As NPR reports: 

"The fires struck during peak tourist season in Greece. And while visitors flock to the islands from all over the world, Corfu and Rhodes are especially popular with people from the United Kingdom."

Up to 10,000 British tourists are on Rhodes and many are still trying to get out of the country, but getting to the airport is difficult, never mind finding a flight out. 

NPR again: 

"Some tourists say they had to walk for miles in the heat to reach safety, and local TV footage shows crowds of people walking beneath orange, smoke-filled skies and lying on mattresses in makeshift shelters."

I was also more than a little puzzled when a couple airlines were still flying tourists into Rhodes while tourists who were already there were fleeing fires. 

ITALY 

Heat and powerful storms are the story in Italy.

The southern part of the nation sweltered in record heat, and at least four died in the resulting wildfires. 

Temperatures reached as high as 117 degrees in Sicily. Rome reached 107 degrees, its hottest reading on record for any date. 

Huge hailstones pelted northern Italy. 

About 40 wildfires broke out in Sicily.  The airport in Palermo was temporarily closed because of the nearby fires but has since reopened. 

The heat has turned the Mediterranean Sea into something of a hot tub.  The average surface temperature of the sea reached 83.12 degrees (28.4 C) this week, an all time record high. 

In northern Italy, the hot temperatures interacting with cooler air to the north set off severe thunderstorms, at least one tornado, microbursts and tennis ball sized hail or bigger. One hail stone recovered in northern Italy was 7.89 inches in diameter, the largest hail stone on record for the entire continent of Europe. 

SWITZERLAND

An incredible storm hit the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland and its surroundings northwest of Bern. 

The storm packed winds of 135 mph, which is the equivalent of a category 4 hurricane. Video from the city during the storm looked like such a hurricane.  

One person was killed, several were injured and the area suffered widespread damage to homes, businesses and other buildings. 

The storm was an apparent microburst, which a larger version of a thunderstorm microburst. Macrobursts cover an area at least 2.5 miles in diameter. Winds in them can reach 135 mph, so this Swiss event was definitely a very high end version of this phenomenon. 

There might also have been an embedded tornado.