LONDON (AP) — Much of western Europe has been baking under a “heat dome” this week, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in many places.
The extreme conditions have come in June, earlier in the summer than is usual. Records are tumbling by day and by night. Add in the humidity and it's more tropical than temperate.
The heat is coming up from north Africa and affecting Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.K.
— most of them without widespread air conditioning and unused to such oppressive heat.
Conditions are expected to ease in coming days, though July and August, the traditional height of the European summer, are still to come.
Here are some standout numbers that illustrate the depth and breadth of the heat wave:
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The hottest temperature in France this week, recorded in the small southwestern town of Pissos on Wednesday.
The average temperature measured at 30 French weather stations by the Meteo France weather agency on Wednesday. The agency said it was the first time ever the average has been that high, making Wednesday the hottest day in France ever.
While the figure may seem low, it was measured day and night and shows this latest heat wave is much broader than others before. More than three-quarters of France have been placed under a red weather alert for the first time ever.
The temperature recorded in Somerset, southern England on Thursday, marking the hottest June day the country ever saw. Forecasters have extended its red alert for heat in much of central and southern England and Wales.
The German Weather Service says the temperature didn’t go below this figure in Bad Bergzabern, in Rhineland-Palatinate in the west of the country. That equals a record for the warmest night in Germany set in July 2019.
High humidity means that the heat has been lingering into the night for millions, providing little respite. In England, temperatures in Plymouth only dropped to 23.0 C (73.4 F), provisionally smashing another record.
That's how many people have drowned in heat wave-related incidents in the past week in France, as people seek relief in rivers and other bodies of water despite authorities’ warnings about unsupervised swimming. Most of the drownings involved young people, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Tuesday.
The all-time record temperature recorded earlier this week in the Spanish village of Tama, known for its cooler weather and green landscape. The current bout of heat wave has affected Spain’s normally more temperate northern regions along the Atlantic coast.
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Pan Pylas in London, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf, Germany and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.
