In addition to hail in some places, in Portugal, Sunday's heat led to the formation of a rare phenomenon of "rolling clouds", which accumulated in certain stretches of the coast. Images shared on social media show a huge horizontal cloud moving from the sea horizon towards the beaches.

Inland, the thermometer reached 46.6°C in Mora, district of Évora, a value close to the absolute maximum in the country, on August 1, 2003, then 47.3 degrees in Amareleja (Beja), according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).

With an average of 26.01°C (degrees Celsius), according to data from the European Copernicus program recorded on Sunday and analysed by Météo-France, the Mediterranean Sea has never recorded such a high surface temperature.

And on land, records have also been broken since the beginning of this extreme heat wave.

France experienced its hottest night ever recorded in June on Sunday night, and Monday also set a monthly record, according to provisional data released Monday night by Météo-France.

Paris will be placed on red heatwave alert on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of Rome and Milan.

Record highs for the month of June were also recorded in several Spanish stations, according to the Aemet meteorological agency.

On Saturday, a record high for the month of June was set in Huelva, with a temperature of 46°C, surpassing the 45.2°C recorded in Seville in 1965.

In Italy, the Health Ministry has placed 17 cities on red alert, including Rome, Milan, Florence and Verona. "Climate shelters" have been set up in Bologna and dehumidifiers have been distributed to those in need in Ancona.

This is "one of the strongest heatwaves of the summer", which is also notable for its particularly long duration, expert Antonio Spano, founder of the specialist website ilmeteo.it, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).


While firefighters were battling forest fires in several regions of Italy, local media reported that a 77-year-old woman died on Sunday, suffocated by smoke from a fire that broke out near her home in Potenza (south).

In Turkey, more than 50,000 people from 41 towns had to be evacuated today due to forest fires.

After the death of two road workers in Spain on Saturday, probably from heatstroke, trade unions called for measures to protect the most exposed workers.

Heatwaves are becoming more intense, starting earlier and occurring later in the summer due to climate change.

In Croatia, the vast majority of the coast is on red alert due to temperatures around 35°C, while Montenegro faces a high risk of fires and Serbia faces severe and extreme drought across much of its territory.

The UK was also hit by the heatwave on the first day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, with British authorities issuing an amber alert (the second most severe on the scale) in five regions of England, including London.

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