Much of Europe is set to face yet another intense heat wave this week, following periods of record drought that have driven water levels at major rivers to historic lows, ignited historic forest fires and contributed to thousands of deaths.
Swathes of Britain and France on Monday were already under extreme heat warnings with forecasts of temperatures around the mid-30s Celsius (90-95 Fahrenheit), while parched conditions saw new fires erupt in Greece and Spain.
Unusually high temperatures were also forecast in the coming days across a number of countries not accustomed to the heat, such as Switzerland, Austria and Hungary.
The heat wave comes after mainland France and Switzerland saw their widest-ranging droughts for the month of July on record, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) data released by Europe's Copernicus climate observatory on Monday.
Europe's weather warning system, MeteoAlarm, on Monday, also said that scorching temperatures are already being felt across much of Italy and coastal areas of Croatia.
