France was hit hard, forcing hundreds of schools to tweak their timetables to cope. Forecasters warned of an "intense and long-lasting" heatwave that could see temperatures in Paris soar above 40C for the first time on a June day.Across the continent, authorities were ramping up warnings of extreme weather. German forecasters said parts of the country needed to be on alert for thunderstorms, hail and heavy rain over the weekend.Temperatures in Britain were not expected to be as intense as continental Europe but meteorologists confirmed that England and Wales had experienced the hottest spring ever recorded.
Heatwave in western Europe © Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA, Valentina BRESCHI / AFP
Scientists say human-driven climate change is amplifying such extremes, with weather events like heatwaves, droughts and floods becoming more intense and frequent.The current heatwave is already the second of the year for many, and means summer is kicking off for tens of millions of Western Europeans with another spell of extreme heat.Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain have all raised alert levels for the coming days.The UK's Met Office said there was a 40 percent chance of beating the record temperature for a June day, set in 1976.With climate change, "we're seeing more extremes of temperatures, we're breaking records more frequently", Alex Deakin from the Met Office told AFP. "When you get hot spells, they're that much hotter. And when you get rainy spells, they're that much rainier," he said.'Trying to cope'France is at the heart of the current upsurge, with the country having just experienced its hottest spring since records began in 1900.
