Barcelona recorded June’s hottest June for over a century, with the summit of Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower closed to visitors, and on Tuesday Europe sizzled in the first major heat of summer.
Health warnings were effective in some European countries. The worst was felt in southern Europe, but the punishment was predicted to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Paris, and was predicted to be unusually high in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Samantha Burgess, Europe’s Medium-Distance Weather Prediction Centre, said the unusually hot climate “exposes millions of Europeans to high heat stress,” with temperatures in June and August. This June says it is likely to be one of the five hottest on record.
The Fabra Observatory in Barcelona reported an average temperature of 26C (78F) last month, breaking records since the book began in 1914. The average before June was 25.6C in 2003.