PARIS — France is bracing for another day of exceptionally hot weather, with more than half the country remaining under a red heat alert on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of homes have been left without power in western Brittany, while a major wildfire was brought under control overnight in the Maine-et-Loire region. It comes after the country experienced its hottest June day since records began on Tuesday, with an average temperature of 29.8C (85.54F) recorded.
The heatwave is expected to spread to other parts of western Europe on Wednesday, with an orange alert for dangerous weather in place for parts of the Netherlands. Temperatures are expected to peak in the Netherlands and Belgium on Friday, while Germany is expected to see the mercury rise to 40C (104F) over the weekend.
On Wednesday, red alerts in France were extended to include four more regions, forecaster Météo France said, bringing the total number to 58. Thirty-one more regions are under an orange alert.
The heat caused the first major power outage in France, with around 68,000 homes left without power in the north-western Finistère region on Tuesday evening due to a problem with a transformer.
The world’s most visited museum, the Louvre, said it was bringing forward its closing time from Wednesday to Saturday from 18:00 to 16:00 local time, citing that its historic building “remains fragile and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change.”
In France, among those who died in heatwave-related incidents was a 13-year-old girl who had gone for a dip with her family in the River Seine at Fontaine-La Port on Sunday evening, although she did not know how to swim.
The Dutch weather service has issued a Code Orange weather alert for southern and central areas of the Netherlands from Wednesday until at least Friday, with maximum temperatures of 37C expected.
Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world — but particularly in Europe. It is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service.