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Spain battles wildfires as it swelters in heatwave

ZARAGOZA, Spain, June 18 - Firefighters battled to bring raging wildfires under control in Spain on Saturday and people sought relief with fans, shade and plenty of water as an unseasonable heatwave pushed temperatures close to record highs.

Spain was heading towards its hottest early summer temperatures in decades, with forecasts of between 40-42 degrees Celsius (104-108 Fahrenheit) in Zaragoza in the northeast and areas of Navarre and La Rioja in northern Spain, according to national weather agency AEMET. Many areas of Western Europe have been sweltering under unseasonably hot temperatures over the past few days, compounding climate change fears.

In Zaragoza, forecast to sizzle under Spain's highest temperature of 42C on Saturday, people at a farmers market waved fans and newspapers, stood in the shade and kept hydrated. By 4 p.m. the temperature had reached 40.9C.

Dry and windy conditions have caused wildfires in several areas, with Zamora, near the border with Portugal, among the worst hit.

Almost 20,000 hectares of land had been burned in the Sierra de la Culebra mountain range and the fire was "still active", said a tweet from the regional government of Castile and Leon, where Zamora is located.

On Saturday afternoon, it said 11 villages had been evacuated and some 500 firefighters were working to put out the flames.

There have been no reports of deaths or injuries.

In Catalonia, firefighters who were trying to bring a fire under control in Baldomar said they expected Saturday to be "complicated" by "very high temperatures and a strong southerly wind".

Millions stranded as floods ravage parts of Bangladesh, India, more rain forecast

DHAKA/GUWAHATI, India, June 18 - Monsoon rains caused widespread flooding in northeastern Bangladesh and India, stranding nearly 6 million people and killing at least 19 people in Bangladesh, authorities said on Saturday, warning the situation could worsen.

Lightning strikes have killed at least 15 people in eight districts in Bangladesh since Friday, and four people were killed in landslides, police officials said.

The flooding in Bangladesh, described by a government expert as potentially the country's worst since 2004, was exacerbated by the runoff from heavy rain across Indian mountains. Rain continued on Saturday, with more forecast over the next two days.

"Much of the country's northeast is underwater and the situation is getting worse as heavy downpour continues," said Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, chief administrator of Bangladesh's Sylhet region.

Seasonal monsoon rains, a lifeline for farmers across South Asia, also typically cause loss of life and property every year.

Bangladesh and India have experienced increasing extreme weather in recent years, causing large-scale damage. Environmentalists warn climate change could lead to more disasters, especially in low-lying and densely populated Bangladesh. The worst-hit Sunamganj district in Bangladesh is almost disconnected from the rest of the country, Hossain told Reuters, adding that authorities helped by the army were focused on rescuing those trapped and distributing relief.

"There is shortage of boats, which makes it harder to move people to safer places," he said. "Today the navy is joining us in rescue efforts."

Television footage showed Bangladesh roads and railway lines submerged, with people wading through chest-high brown churning waters, carrying their belongings and livestock.

Storm Celia expected to dump heavy rain on El Salvador, Guatemala, southern Mexico

MEXICO CITY, June 17 - Tropical Storm Celia is expected to drop heavy rain on El Salvador, Guatemala and southern Mexico through Sunday, and could spark flash floods and mudslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.

Celia, which formed on Friday, is a small storm and will likely move westward away from the coast into the Pacific, the NHC predicted. Still, movement farther north or an increase in size could lead to a tropical storm warning in the region.

The storm is slowly drifting north-northeast, and was blowing maximum sustained wind speeds of 40 mph (65 kph) on Friday morning, the NHC said.

Authorities in El Salvador have issued a "red alert" warning along the country's coast.

Mexico's National Water Commission said the storm would likely dump rain on the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Veracruz and Yucatan. Celia's emergence comes as Blas, a Category 1 hurricane off the coast moving deeper into the Pacific, threatens to douse the western states of Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, Guerrero, Michoacan and Baja California with rain, the water commission said.

Swells generated by Blas are likely to cause dangerous surf and rip currents in parts of the Baja California peninsula, the NHC said.

Hurricane Agatha hit Mexico in late May, causing floods that killed at least nine people. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will travel to Oaxaca on Friday to give an update on progress made in recovery efforts following a visit last week.

China hit by rare convergence of rainfall, heatwaves and a tornado

BEIJING, June 17 - China was hit this week by a rare convergence of record rainfall, heatwaves, and a tornado in the southern megacity of Guangzhou, displacing millions of people, damaging properties and swamping farmland, with more storms and floods on the way.

Southern China is expected to see torrential rain until Tuesday, state media reported on Friday, with no immediate reprieve to the region inundated by downpours in the past week.

At least seven provinces and regions in the south issued alerts for severe storms and floods for the next 24 hours.

Authorities had issued warnings of "extreme weather events" as early as April, ahead of the rainy season that signals the seasonal transition from spring to summer in June.

China is historically prone to floods, triggering landslides and swamping many acres of farmland.

In recent times, the country has grown even more vulnerable, owing to deforestation, the reclamation of wetlands and the storage of water for power generation and irrigation.

China also blames climate change for the increase in extreme weather events.

The aviation regulator on Friday cautioned airlines against flying through extreme weather, with severe convection storms to be expected over the summer.

"Weather conditions in China will tend to be unfavourable this summer," an official at the regulator said at a news briefing on Friday.

Late on Thursday, a tornado ripped through parts of Guangzhou during a heavy rainstorm, local media reported, cutting off power supply to over 5,400 users in the sprawling southern city, capital of Guangdong province.

Media in Guangzhou reported dangerous water levels with high waves in the broader Pearl River Basin, prompting the central government to dispatch flood prevention workers.

Since May, precipitation in the Pearl River Basin - a vast river system encompassing Guangdong and parts of Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan - has risen to its highest since 1961, according to state media on Friday, citing China's National Climate Center.

In Fujian province north of the basin, authorities warned that recent record-breaking rainfall would persist into next week, posing a high risk of natural disasters.

Meanwhile, temperatures in central and northern China are expected to hit unusual highs into next week, surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The abnormally warm weather has already enveloped the Henan capital of Zhengzhou, which was hit by record rainfall and paralysed by devastating floods last summer.

Wildfires ravage woods in Spain's Catalonia as heat-wave bites

ARTESA DE SEGRE/TOLEDO, Spain, June 16 - Three wildfires have laid waste to 1,600 hectares (3,950 acres) of pines and bushes in eastern Spain since Wednesday as a heatwave pushes temperatures close to record highs, regional firefighters said on Thursday.

Hundreds of firemen were on the ground battling the blazes with 120 trucks and a 19 aircraft to fight the flames near the towns of Baldomar, Corbera d'Ebre and Castellar Ribera, Catalonia's regional fire department said.

ARTESA DE SEGRE/TOLEDO, Spain, June 16 - Three wildfires have laid waste to 1,600 hectares (3,950 acres) of pines and bushes in eastern Spain since Wednesday as a heatwave pushes temperatures close to record highs, regional firefighters said on Thursday.

Hundreds of firemen were on the ground battling the blazes with 120 trucks and a 19 aircraft to fight the flames near the towns of Baldomar, Corbera d'Ebre and Castellar Ribera, Catalonia's regional fire department said.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue Most efforts were focused on Baldomar, where flames threatened 20,000 hectares of woods and farmland. Some isolated houses were evacuated as was a child centre with 54 minors.

There have been no reports of deaths or injuries.

Large swathes of the country face high or extreme risk of wildfire, the state meteorological agency AEMET said.

As of June 5, the area burned in Spain was 34% smaller than the same period in 2021 and the lowest since 2018. However, since last week the combination of hot weather, wind and thunderstorms has sparked wildfires around the nation.