Barcelona recorded its hottest month of June since records started over a century ago, Spain’s national weather service said on Tuesday as Europe remained in the grip of the first major heat wave this summer.

The Fabra Observatory, located on a hill overlooking Barcelona, reported an average temperature of 26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking records since 1914. The previous hottest average for June was 25.6 C in 2003.
The same weather station said that a single-day high of 37.9 C (100 F) for June was recorded Monday, June 30.

Barcelona is usually spared the worst heat in Spain, thanks to its location between hills and the Mediterranean in Spain’s northeastern corner. But most of the country has been gripped by the first heat wave of the year.

Health warnings were in effect Tuesday in several European Union countries even as conditions began to improve in some parts of the region.

Punishing temperatures were forecast to reach 40 C (104 F) in Paris and to stay unusually high in Belgium and the Netherlands. In contrast, temperatures........

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