Several Western European countries this week broke historic temperature records for the boreal spring, in a heat wave described as “unprecedented” by national weather services in the United Kingdom and France, which has caused at least ten deaths and stretched the continent's health services. The episode is part of a trend of extreme events that the scientific community links directly to human-driven climate change, according to a study published on Tuesday that concluded that the temperature spikes “are primarily attributed to human driven climate change.”

A “heat dome” is forecast to linger across parts of Europe as the prospects of an El Nino continue to firm.

Climate change is causing earlier and more intense heatwaves, France’s weather agency said.

Extreme heat settles upon western Europe, with values in Spain set to reach 40 degrees