Serbia's Rusanda Lake dries to a pond as the Balkans swelters in a heatwave

What used to be a lake in northern Serbia is now barely a pond, with cracked mud and drying reed beds marking a former nature reserve. The Balkans and much of Europe are facing a blistering heatwave, experiencing record-high temperatures. Governments from Italy to Romania have issued weather alerts, urging people to stay indoors during peak heat. The Adriatic Sea around Dubrovnik has reached record temperatures, about 5 degrees warmer than average. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reports a 1.5% Celsius rise in global temperatures above the pre-industrial era for 12 consecutive months, making extreme weather and hotter summers increasingly common. Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile #Serbia #Balkans #Europe #EuropeHeatwave #BalkansHeatwave #RusandaLake #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #GlobalWarming #AdriaticSea #Dubrovnik #ExtremeWeather #Environment