Nearly 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes in southwestern France on Monday as a wildfire burned through nearly 5,000 hectares, while authorities across Europe issued health warnings amid a new, intense heatwave. Météo-France placed 75 percent of the country under an orange heat warning, the second-highest level, and assessed the fire risk as “very high” in several departments.

In the United Kingdom, the Met Office confirmed that heatwave criteria had been met in south-east England after three consecutive days above 28C, with temperatures reaching 34C in Teddington, south-west London, on Monday. Amber heat health alerts were issued for the Midlands and southern England from Wednesday to Sunday, and yellow alerts for Yorkshire and northern England. The UK Health Security Agency warned of a likely rise in deaths among people aged 65 and over and those with pre-existing health conditions, as well as a potential increase in water-related incidents.

Italian meteorologists described a third severe heatwave of the season, driven by subtropical air masses from North Africa. Forecasts pointed to temperatures of 38C across the Po Valley on Wednesday, with peaks of 39C in Emilia and lower Lombardy, and 40C expected in Sardinia and parts of Puglia and Tuscany by the weekend. The heatwave was expected to persist until at least 22-23 July, with “super tropical nights” where minimum temperatures remain above 25C. The meteorologist Lorenzo Tedici attributed the intensity to a “starting advantage” of excess heat caused by global warming, which he said was making African anticyclones more powerful and efficient at generating extreme surface temperatures.

While the UK Met Office said the current heatwave was not expected to be record-breaking, in contrast to the June event that saw 37.7C, Italian forecasters described a summer that was “rewriting European climatology day by day”. The heatwave is forecast to continue through the weekend, with a risk of thunderstorms in northern Italy on Saturday and a gradual slight cooling in the UK early next week. Firefighting operations in southwestern France remain ongoing.