Temperatures close to 38 degrees as heatwave roasts Poland

Locals try and cool off near Old Town in Warsaw: photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

The nearly 38-degree heat was close to the all-time record in Poland of 38.2 degrees recorded almost a century ago.

Tarnów is located on the so-called ‘thermal island’ of the Carpathian Foothills and has the highest number of cloudless days in Poland – 55 a year on average - and consequently receives the highest amount of solar energy in the country.

In Warsaw the mercury reached 37 degrees yesterday, only one tenth of a degree short of the all-time record registered on 17 July 1904.

Climate change experts argue that the heatwaves in Poland are now more frequent than many years ago and that while a few decades ago maximum temperatures during a heatwave were 30 to 31 degrees, the average is now four degrees higher. (mk/pg)