As Morocco experiences an intense heatwave, the health ministry says more than 20 people have died over the past 24 hours in the central city of Beni Mellal.

Meteorologist says temperatures reached as high as 48 degrees Celsius in some areas of the country between Monday to Wednesday.

Officials say most of those who passed away were either elderly or suffering from chronic illnesses, with the heat contributing to the deterioration of their health.

They have urged citizen to drink lots of water to stay hydrated and to avoid going outside at times of extreme heat.

In Beni Mellal, which is more than 200 kilometres southeast of Casablanca, temperatures were still as high as 43 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

But meteorologist said the heat across the country is expected to ease over the coming days. In the tourism hotspot of Marrakesh, they are expected to drop by 10 degrees on Sunday.

The European Union’s climate monitor says Monday was the world’s hottest day on record after it inched past Sunday’s high as swaths of Europe, Asia and North America experienced blistering temperatures.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday that the global average surface air temperature on July 22 rose to 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit) – or 0.06 degrees Celsius higher than the record set just a day earlier.

Gulf countries have also experienced high temperatures that exceed 60C (140F) when factoring in humidity while some European countries saw temperatures surge to 45C (113F).

As the effects of climate change intensify, weather patterns are becoming more extreme with heatwaves, droughts, ramped-up storms and floods affecting much of the globe.

Deaths caused by landslides in Ethiopia have risen to 257, but the final death toll is expected to be 500, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The UN agency released the figures on Thursday after the landslides in the mountainous Gofa zone in southern Ethiopia, the first triggered by heavy rains on Monday, the second engulfing those who had gathered to rescue people.

The head of the United Nations has called on countries to take action to address the effects of “crippling heat”, as the world experiences record-high temperatures that have put vulnerable communities at risk.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Antonio Guterres said billions of people around the globe are experiencing “an extreme heat epidemic” fuelled by climate change.

“Extreme heat is increasingly tearing through economies, widening inequalities, undermining the Sustainable Development Goals, and killing people,” the UN secretary-general said.

“We know what is driving it: fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change. And we know it’s going to get worse; extreme heat is the new abnormal.”

These Storms Just Took a Drastic Turn…