Britain and Switzerland both hit a record high temperature for June on Thursday as large parts of Western Europe remained in the grip of a deadly early summer heatwave that has killed dozens of people, disrupted power supplies, and shut schools and cultural landmarks.

French and British authorities warned busy people to adapt their daily routines to avoid the risk of overheating. France activated its highest level of health service mobilization, meaning non-urgent operations could be canceled to focus on caring for those affected by the hot weather.

Paris endured another sweltering day after temperatures in the French capital hit a June record of 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.

Switzerland registered its hottest ever June temperature on Thursday, with 38C measured in the northern city of Basel, breaking a previous record of 36.9C set eight decades ago, the Swiss weather service said.

Temperatures reached 36.4 C in southwest England on Thursday, provisionally making it the hottest June day recorded in Britain, surpassing a record set just a day earlier, the Met Office said on X. Britain’s Met Office extended a red heat alert covering a large area into Friday, the first time such warnings have been issued for three days in a row.

“Significant disruption to daily life is likely and the public should take every effort to adapt their daily routines to cope with these levels of heat, which up to now have been extremely rare for the UK,” said Andy Page, a chief meteorologist at the Met Office.

The extreme conditions across much of Europe have come in June, earlier in the summer than is usual. Records are tumbling by day and by night. Add in the humidity and it’s more tropical than temperate. The heat is coming up from north Africa and affecting Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK — most of them without widespread air conditioning and unused to such oppressive heat.

Conditions are expected to ease in coming........

© The Times of Israel