By: Jessica Chin

People are being affected by dangerous heat waves all across the world. India, France, Spain, and Portugal are facing the worst effects of the heat wave. These are things like quickly spreading fires, a lack of rain, drought, and heat stroke.

These heat waves are very dangerous because they could easily cause someone to get too hot and die, a phenomenon called heat stroke. They also cause a lack of water, making it even harder to cool off. Some governors even suggest staying inside.

India and Pakistan have been facing unbearable heat since March. The highest recorded temperature is 120 ºF (49 ºC). The heat has caused health problems, fires, and droughts in these countries. This has been hard for India and Pakistan because the extreme weather conditions started in the late spring, and summer is typically even hotter.

To make things worse, Pakistan is also facing a heat-induced energy shortage. This means that people in Pakistan sometimes have no way to turn on the air conditioning, making staying cool even harder.

In India, the more drastic droughts caused crops to be destroyed and have the ground to dry up and crack. With no rain, farmers’ lands have been unable to grow anything, and existing crops have withered away.

In Europe, Spain, Portugal, and France also faced unbearable heat. They more recently have seen temperatures up to 109ºF (43ºC). They haven’t seen such high temperatures in early June for 20 or more years. Spain’s meteorologists say that summer didn’t start this early 50 years ago.