France is bracing for another day of exceptionally hot weather, with more than half the country remaining under a red heat alert on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of homes have been left without power in western Brittany, while a major wildfire was brought under control overnight in the Maine-et-Loire region.
It comes after the country experienced its hottest June day since records began on Tuesday, with an average temperature of 29.8°C recorded. The heatwave is expected to spread to other parts of western Europe on Wednesday, with an orange alert for dangerous weather in place for parts of the Netherlands.
Temperatures are expected to peak in the Netherlands and Belgium on Friday, while Germany is expected to see the mercury rise to 40°C over the weekend. The heatwave is also expected to spread to eastern Europe over the next few days, with severe heat warnings issued for countries including Poland, Croatia and Hungary.
So far, France, Spain and Italy have been hardest hit by the heatwave. Forty people have drowned in heatwave-related incidents in France since last Thursday, according to the prime minister.
Red alerts in France are being extended to include four more regions as of midday on Wednesday, forecaster Météo France said, bringing the total number to 58. Thirty-one more regions are under an orange alert.
As of 05:00 local time, La Rochelle in the southwest had already recorded a temperature of 29°C, with a high of 43°C possible later in the day. Highs of 39 to 40°C are forecast across much of the country's west, from Paris to Brittany, and are expected to remain until the weekend.
Temperatures peaked on Tuesday, with a high of 44.3°C recorded in parts of Landes, in the southwest. Some relief from the heat is expected from Friday, with temperatures forecast to gradually drop over the weekend, bringing thunderstorms and a risk of flash flooding.
Speaking to French radio, labour minister Jean-Pierre Farandou said "we're in the process of finding out we've become a hot country". The heat caused the first major power outage in the country, with around 68,000 homes left without power in the north-western Finistère region on Tuesday evening due to a problem with a transformer.
Elsewhere in the Maine and Loire region, more than 150 firefighters were deployed to fight a major fire on Tuesday in the Breignon forest in Saint-Macaire-du-Bois. It was brought under control overnight.
The world's most visited museum, the Louvre in Paris, said it was bringing forward its closing time from Wednesday to Saturday from 18:00 to 16:00 local time, citing the building's fragility and insufficient adaptation to climate change.
In France, among those who died in heatwave-related incidents was a 13-year-old girl who had gone for a dip with her family in the River Seine at Fontaine-La Port on Sunday evening, although she did not know how to swim. Several drownings have also been reported in Germany.
While Spain has experienced baking heat over the last few days, temperatures are expected to start falling on the Iberian peninsula on Wednesday. But red heat alerts remain in place for parts of northern Spain, with a maximum temperature of 42°C possible in parts of the Basque country.
In Italy, 16 provincial capitals are now under red heat alerts, with Latina added on Wednesday and Bari on Thursday. The Dutch weather service has issued a Code Orange alert for southern and central areas from Wednesday until at least Friday, with maximum temperatures of 37°C expected, possibly reaching 39°C on Friday.
In Belgium, most of the country is under an orange alert with highs of 37°C expected. Belgium's Risk Management Group activated the "alert phase of the national ozone and heat plan" for only the second time. Climate change is driving up temperatures in Europe, which is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk