Meteorologists have announced that Europeans are in for a heat wave next week with temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius in an "unprecedented" heat wave for June that will affect a large part of Western Europe.
From the UK to Belgium and Greece, a heatwave will arrive from the Maghreb in North Africa and Spain with high temperatures starting this weekend and expected to peak in the middle of next week.
In Germany, meteorologists predict temperatures up to 37 degrees Celsius on Tuesday and 38 degrees on Wednesday, and similar weather is expected in Belgium and Switzerland.
Britain's MetOffice is particularly concerned that the heatwave could fuel "strong storms" and has warned Britons to prepare for "hot, humid and unsettled" weather.
Greece will be among the countries most affected by the heat wave, with temperatures up to 39 degrees Celsius already this weekend, Hina agency reports.
In France, an "unprecedented heat wave for the month of June" is announced, which will break the previous temperature records for the first month of summer.
In the summer of 2003, France suffered an intense heat wave that killed nearly 15.000 mostly elderly people.
From Tuesday, temperatures in France will rise from 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, so residents will not have relief even at night, meteorologists predict.
The arrival of an intense heat wave shows once again the effect of global warming on the planet, and such weather conditions are likely to become more frequent, say meteorologists.
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