France records hottest day ever as Europe suffers brutal heat wave

PARIS — France again shattered records for its hottest day ever Wednesday, with more brutal temperatures as a deadly heat wave scorches much of western Europe.

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Thousands of ​homes were hit by power cuts in northern France, while the punishing temperatures prompted the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum to restrict visiting hours.

Red alerts were also in place in Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as the extreme early summer heat forced school closures, travel disruption and alarm about climate change across a region ill-equipped for such blistering conditions.

A high of 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 Fahrenheit) was measured in parts of Landes, in the southwest.

The record of 29.8 C for France’s national thermal indicator — an average of day and nighttime temperatures measured at 30 weather stations — was only the latest in a series of never-before-registered highs heaped on Europe in this latest heat wave.

“Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” the Meteo France weather service said, adding that the conditions were comparable to a 16-day heat wave in ​August ⁠2003 that caused an estimated 80,000 excess deaths across Europe.

At least 48 people have died in France from drowning as they tried to escape the crippling heat, authorities said.

Two young children were killed by heat in a car, prosecutors in the southern commune of Carpentras said in a statement Wednesday. “The mother, speaking voluntarily, confirmed that the children had locked themselves in the vehicle without her knowledge,” it added.

At Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, passengers scrolling through their weather apps were greeted with a slew of red across much of France early Wednesday, warning about the risks of extreme heat for tens of millions of people.

“We knew it would be hot, we didn’t realize it would be the hottest day of on record,” a woman arriving from the United Kingdom told her friend as they waited in line. Another woman said she would hide out in her hotel where there is air conditioning.

Tourists hoping to visit the city’s iconic Eiffel Tower may be disappointed for a second day after it closed Tuesday afternoon. Those with tickets were asked to check their emails on the tower’s website Wednesday. “Visitors without tickets are asked to postpone their visit,” it said.

The Louvre also said it would close two hours earlier than normal from Wednesday through Saturday.

“Although parts of its historic building are naturally resilient, the museum remains vulnerable and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change,” museum officials said. “Heat buildup is greatest toward the end of the day and is further intensified by high visitor numbers.”

Outisde the museum, American tourists Dom and Jenn Caruso were sweltering.

“Ubearably hot,” Dom Caruso, 45, said. “It’s just ridiculous, you can’t seem to escape it.” He added they had no choice but to push on through, otherwise they flew from their home near Detroit “to sit in a hotel room, and that just doesn’t make sense.”

“So we’re here just to see what we can see, enjoy as much as we can and deal with it with water and fans and whatever we can,” he said.

Jenn Caruso, 43, added that together with their two children, they were planning to visit the Louvre before taking a cruise on the Seine.

“We’re experiencing an episode of exceptional intensity,” French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Tuesday. “Every day and every night, local and national temperature records are being broken.”

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising roughly twice as fast as the global average as climate change makes these bouts of extreme weather more likely.

British health authorities have also issued a “red heat” health alert, for only the second time ever, warning of a risk to life even for the healthy. The country saw its hottest June day on record Wednesday, with a recorded high of 35.7 C (96.2 Fahrenheit) south of London.

The country’s grid operator asked generators to make more power available amid soaring temperatures poised to break records later Wednesday. Train operators advised people to make only essential journeys, while hundreds of schools were closed or finished early.

The conditions were likely to persist at least until the weekend, the U.K.’s Met Office warned.

It was a similar story in Germany, Austria and in Italy, where health officials have issued red warnings for 16 cities including the capital, Rome. Warnings were also issued for Milan, Turin, Venice and Florence.

In Switzerland, however, some regional authorities have come up with a novel way for people to beat the heat — free daytime screenings at air conditioned cinemas.

“The ​hotter ⁠it gets, the more ‌the cinema becomes a place of refuge,” Laurent Dutoit, manager of three of the cinemas taking part, told ‌Reuters.

Around 650 people have taken ‌up the offer since Thursday, he added.