The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Latest Major European Heatwave
Dear Diary. Excess heat has relented a bit across most sections of the U.S. due to the demise of historic CAT4 Heatwave Shell. While that system was raging, another heatwave was building across Europe. The heat dome in association with the thing became monstrous on Saturday with a 597+ decameter center in southern France on Saturday. Looking at the strength and longevity of this thing plus severity of record reports, I’d estimate that this is a historic CAT4 heatwave, which probably will kill 500-1000 people unfortunately, not to mention the likely impetus for devastating wildfires later this summer:
That heat dome is coming down but will be with us all of this week across central and southern Europe:
Here are a few European record reports from weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. (Many more can be found on each of my daily diary entries from the past dozen days.)
Here are more hot details from the latest article by the Los Angeles Times:
Europe swelters under scorching temperatures as regions issue heat alerts
A helicopter sprays water to extinguish a fire Monday in Seferihisar, near Izmir, Turkey. Forest fires driven by strong winds damaged some vacation homes and forced evacuations. (Cengiz Malgir / Associated Press)
By Suzan Fraser and Joseph Wilson
June 30, 2025 10:57 AM PT
A heat dome hovered over France, Portugal and Spain to Turkey, while data from European forecasters suggested other countries were set to broil further in coming days. Heat warnings were issued for parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and the U.K., with new highs expected on Wednesday before rain is forecast to bring respite to some areas later this week.
“Extreme heat is no longer a rare event — it has become the new normal,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted from Seville, Spain, where temperatures hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday.
Reiterating his frequent calls for action to fight climate change, Guterres added: “The planet is getting hotter & more dangerous — no country is immune.”
In Portugal — his home country — a reading of 115.9 degrees Fahrenheit was registered in Mora, about 60 miles east of Lisbon. Weather officials were working to confirm whether that marked a new record for June.
Portuguese authorities issued a heat warning Monday for seven of 18 districts as temperatures were forecast to hit 109.
The first heat wave of the year has gripped Spain since the weekend and no relief is expected until Thursday, the national weather service said Monday. The country appeared to hit a new high for June on Saturday, when 114 was recorded in the southern province of Huelva, while Sunday’s national average of 82 set a record for a high temperature for June 29 since records were started in 1950.
Forest fires
In France, which was almost entirely sweltering in the heat wave on Monday, and where air conditioning remains relatively rare, local and national authorities were taking extra effort to care for homeless and elderly people and people working outside.
Some tourists were putting off plans for some rigorous outdoor activities.
“We were going to do a bike tour today, but we decided because it was going be so warm not to do the bike tour,” said Andrea Tyson, 46, who was visiting Paris from New Philadelphia, Ohio, on Sunday. Misting stations doused passers-by along the River Seine in the French capital.
France’s first significant forest fires of the season consumed 988 acres of woods Sunday and Monday in the Aude region in the south. Water-dumping planes and some 300 firefighters were mobilized, the regional emergency service said. Tourists were evacuated from one campground.
In Turkey, forest fires fanned by strong winds damaged some holiday homes in Izmir’s Doganbey region and forced the temporary closure of the airport in Izmir, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Authorities evacuated four villages as a precaution, the Forestry Ministry said.
Firefighters were also battling a blaze that broke out Monday near residential areas in Hatay province, near Turkey’s border with Syria, that prompted the evacuation of 1,500 people.
Wimbledon swelters
In Italy, the Health Ministry put 21 cities under its level three “red” alert, which indicates “emergency conditions with possible negative effects” on healthy, active people as well as at-risk old people, children and chronically ill people.
Regional governments in northwestern Liguria and southern Sicily put restrictions on outdoor work, such as construction and agricultural labor, during the peak heat hours.
The mercury was rising farther north, too.
Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, said the Wimbledon tennis tournament was facing what could be the hottest start on record — with temperatures of just under 85 recorded at the nearby Kew Gardens.
Tennis enthusiasts fanned themselves or sought shade from the blazing sun as the first day of matches got underway at the All England Club on Monday. Tournament rules allow players to take a 10-minute break when the heat goes above 86 degrees mid-match.
‘People who need protection’
In southern Germany, temperatures of up to 95 degrees were expected on Monday, and they were forecast to creep higher until midweek — going as high as 102 degrees on Wednesday. Some German towns and regions imposed limits on how much water can be taken from rivers and lakes.
At the Berlin zoo, elephants were showered with water and bears treated to blocks of ice containing fruit.
Dr. Hans Kluge, head of the World Health Organization’s Europe office, issued a statement Monday warning that the scorching heat “silently threatens the people who need protection most: older adults, children, outdoor workers, and anyone living with chronic health conditions.”
Recalling some beat-the-heat tips, Kluge advised people to avoid high temperatures outdoors, keep homes as cool as possible by airing them at night, wear light clothing and stay in touch with those who might be most vulnerable to the hot weather.
Fraser and Wilson write for the Associated Press. Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. AP journalists Angela Charlton and Masha Macpherson in Paris, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Lydia Doye in London, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and Jamey Keaten in Lyon, France, contributed to this report.
Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Monday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)