A heatwave gripping western Europe has led to a series of unprecedented temperature highs, with France experiencing its hottest day ever, the UK seeing record heat for June and Spain reaching its highest daily average since 1950.
Tens of millions of people are grappling with punishing temperatures, which hit almost 41C in Paris and have led to red heat alerts across swathes of the continent.
France’s national temperature indicator – an average of day and night temperatures across dozens of locations – hit 30C on Wednesday, the hottest day since records began in 1947.
More than half the country remains under a red heat alert, with tens of thousands of homes in the west without power.
Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world – but particularly in Europe. It is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service.
This is causing increased summer heatwaves, greater pressure on Europe’s water supply, and more intense wildfires.
Météo-France recorded provisional maximum temperatures across France that “remained relatively stable compared to the previous day”.
Highs ranged from 39C to 43C across much of western France, with with 43C recorded in the Poitou-Charentes-Val de Loire region, slightly lower than the 44.3C seen in Pissos on Tuesday.
The intense heat saw two of Paris’s landmarks – the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower – close earlier than usual.
A spokesperson for the Louvre said the building was “not sufficiently adapted to climate change”.
At least 40 people drowned in heatwave-related incidents in France since Thursday, including a six-year-old at a beach in Bègles, Gironde.
Authorities have also warned the risk of forest fires is higher during intense heat.
In the Maine-et-Loire region, more than 150 firefighters were deployed on Tuesday to fight a major fire in the Breignon forest in Saint-Macaire-du-Bois. It was brought under control overnight, officials said.