Warning as Europe edges closer to 120F
BRITISH tourists were advised to avoid the midday sun yesterday as temperatures across Europe came close to breaking all-time records.
Meteorologists in Portugal recorded temperatures of 116.2F (46.8C) at Alvega in the centre of the country.
Portugal’s highest temperature on record is 117.3F (47.4C) from 2003.
The mercury reached a 37year high in the capital, Lisbon at 111.2F (44C) on Saturday, beating the previous 109.4F (43C) record.
A huge forest fire in the Monchique area in the southern Algarve, where former PM David Cameron is believed to be holidaying, raged for a third day, battled by 800 firefighters.
The heatwave is being driven by hot air travelling from northern Africa across Spain and Portugal.
In Granada, Spain, temperatures of 115.5F (46.6C) were recorded, just shy of the hottest European temperature on record, 118.4F (48C) in Athens in 1977. The conditions played a part in the deaths of two men, one in Barcelona and the other in the southern Spanish region of Murcia. Meanwhile, in Finland temperatures approached 86F (30C), where the August average is 66F (19C). A supermarket in Helsinki invited customers to sleep in its air-conditioned store on Saturday.
And Swiss soldiers were allowed to wear shorts.