{"id":37930,"date":"2026-06-24T15:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37930"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:11:00","slug":"deadly-heatwave-grips-western-europe","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/deadly-heatwave-grips-western-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly heatwave grips Western Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MailCompose\">Western Europe is in the grip of a deadly, record-setting heatwave that has played a role in the deaths of dozens of people, closed schools, slowed trains, knocked out electricity and forced farmers to harvest grain at night.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>At least 48 people have died in France from drowning as they attempted to seek respite from the crippling heat.<\/div>\n<div>Two children were killed by heat in a car, authorities said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The recorded temperature peaked at 44.3 degrees Celsius in the southwestern town of Pissos.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In Britain, on course for its hottest June day ever, the Met Office weather service issued only the second extreme-heat weather warning in history.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hundreds of schools stayed shut or closed early, as high temperatures could place even healthy people at risk.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Italy&#8217;s Health Ministry issued its highest heat alert for 16 cities, from Florence and Milan to Rome, Turin and Verona.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The rare weather pattern is known as an Omega block. It resembles the shape of the Greek letter Omega, with a bulbous middle trapping in intensifying heat, hovering over regions for extended periods, with cooler weather on its fringe.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37931,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-37930","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Western Europe is in the grip of a deadly heatwave","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37932,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37930\/revisions\/37932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}