Cor-phew! What a scorcher!

17th July 2010

© © tata_aka_T, flickr.com 10-year high temperatures have seen people head for the beach Share:

Blistering sunshine and whopping temperatures hit Poland this week as the long awaited summer finally arrived - with a vengeance.

And with temperatures soaring to a sweltering 40 degrees Celsius plus in the shade, it wasn’t only mad dogs and English men out in the midday sun.

The sizzling hot weather brought out the best in the capital with young and old plunging half-naked into Warsaw fountains, as municipal guards watched on - and ignored the ban.

“I can’t ever remember it being this hot - not in my entire life,” said Warsaw water reveller Jerzy Nowacki, 41, adding: “Who needs to go to Egypt or Greece when we’ve now got their weather here?”

Seaside resorts - where temperatures hovered around a cooler 29 degrees - were packed as beaches filled up with weekend sun lovers.

Tan fan mum of two Kasia Kozubowska, 26, on holiday with her family in Mielno agreed. “We weren’t thinking of going abroad this year as we couldn’t really afford it. And I’m glad we didn’t - this is magic.”

But not everyone was as level headed nor had much sun fun. “Heat can be dangerous. Try not to expose yourself to the sun and don’t exercise,” warned deputy Chief Sanitary Inspector Przemyslaw Bilinski as 50 people in Warsaw and dozens of others across the country collapsed from sun stroke.

Poland’s highest temperatures for 10 years also brought record numbers of snakes out with scores of people being admitted to hospital with snake bites.

In Krakow several children were attacked and two girls taken to the city’s Prokocim paediatric hospital were in a serious condition.

“We had children here bitten by adders in school playgrounds or house gardens. The most unbelievable case was a two-year old boy who had his behind bitten by an adder while sitting on a potty in a summer house,” said the hospital’s Dr Janina Lankosz-Lauterbach.

But weather experts say to enjoy the sun while it’s here. Forecasts predict severe storms over the coming weekend, before it returns to a hot, albeit more comfortable level.