And UK health chiefs are warning of the impact the heatwave is having on services as they face significantly more life-threatening emergency calls with record-breaking temperatures continuing to scorch the country, PA news agency said.

Several hospitals have declared critical incidents, with University Hospital Southampton being forced to cancel a number of planned operations and some outpatient appointments, PA reported.

Schools and nurseries have also been forced to closed and a hosepipe ban has been brought in for Kent amid surging demand.

The Met Office has just confirmed that a new provisional record for the hottest June day has been set once again, with 36.9C recorded at Wattisham, Suffolk.

“And temperatures are still rising,” it added.

Remember how unusual it this: this is the third time this week when we have a new record.

Also, awkwardly, Wattisham is not even in the area covered by the red extreme heat alert…

Heat combined with record-low May rainfall have significantly increased the risk of fires in forests and national parks in Poland, officials warned, as the country braces for record-high temperatures this weekend.

Temperatures could locally reach even 41C in western Poland, forecasts show, with up to 39C in the capital, Warsaw. Several cities installed special water curtains to help pedestrians cool themselves during the hottest hours of the day.

A spokesperson for Poland’s long-distance rail operator, PKP Intercity, told AFP the heatwave was expected to affect traffic, with overhead power lines sagging and rails deforming.

Following the example of Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, Intercity said its passengers could cancel this weekend’s journeys for a full refund.

The community living next to the largest datacentre park in Europe say the scorching summer heat has grown unbearable.

On days like Wednesday, said Nabeel Nawaz, the store manager of a Chaiiwala franchise in the centre of Slough, England, the heat is like something “pinching your body and burning your skin”.

What is harder to establish is whether this heat is just the result of the climate emergency, and the growing industrial sprawl across London, or whether the dozens of energy-hungry datacentres that have sprung up are also contributing to the problem.

Ten miles (16km) west of Heathrow, Slough has become one of the largest datacentre hubs in the world, hosting an estimated 30 to 40 huge facilities, many of them on a campus in the centre of town. These – owned and maintained by companies like Equinix and Digital Realty – serve dozens of clients, including the world’s biggest tech companies: Amazon, Google, Oracle and Microsoft.

More are still to be built in a planned development on the edge of the same campus.

Emerging research – including a preprint of a paper led by researchers at Cambridge earlier this year – suggests datacentres create a heat island effect, pushing up temperatures in their immediate vicinity by an average of 2C, and as much as 9C.

Read Aisha’s full piece here:

Health chiefs in the UK are warning of the impact the heatwave is having on services as they face significantly more life-threatening emergency calls with record-breaking temperatures continuing to scorch the country.

Several hospitals have declared critical incidents, with University Hospital Southampton being forced to cancel a number of planned operations and some outpatient appointments.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) responded to its highest number of life-threatening emergencies ever on Wednesday, and its chief operating officer Craig Harman said he expects “demand to grow day on day over the next couple of days”.

As football fans prepare to cheer on England in Saturday’s World Cup game, Harman has told people to drink alcohol responsibly, drinking “plenty of water” in between alcoholic beverages.

He told the Press Association it is not just the elderly and people with underlying health conditions affected by the heat, adding: “I’m saying to people I need you to drink water even when you’re not thirsty, staying out of the sun during the hottest parts of the day, and particularly not exercising outside and putting your body under additional heat and strain.”

In the UK leading security, military and academic experts are set to join a newly launched government taskforce aimed at addressing growing threats to the country posed by climate change, PA reports.

The group will advise the government on how to better anticipate and respond to these risks, as global warming and nature loss are increasingly recognised as core drivers of geopolitical instability and economic disruption.

Co-chaired by climate minister Katie White and security minister Dame Angela Eagle, officials said the taskforce will meet to pinpoint gaps in the UK’s preparedness.

The experts will also aim to identify the most serious climate and nature threats to national security, review existing resilience work across government and set out clear recommendations to strengthen readiness, they said.

Meanwhile in Belgium, the authorities have cancelled this weekend’s reenactment of Napoleon’s defeat at the battle of Waterloo as the country swelters under a heatwave, AFP reported.

The annual event sees hundreds of enthusiasts dressed up in Napoleonic-era costumes recreate the battle from 1815 before history-loving crowds.

“Waterloo 2026 reenactments cancelled: safety first,” the organisers announced.

“The safety of the public, participants, volunteers, emergency service workers cannot be comprised.”

Temperatures in Belgium are nearing record highs for June, as part of a broader heatwave choking swathes of Europe.

Near Italy’s Po River estuary, clam fishers toiled picking their nets free of algae spawned by the heat, AFP reported.

“On top of all our problems, now there’s this crazy heat, so long, so unexpected,” said Paolo Mancin, head of a fishers’ cooperative, standing in the 31C water.

“Algae form and the clams are dying in large numbers.”

Over in Italy, Genoa has become the 18th Italian city covered the red extreme health alert, ANSA news agency reported.

It joins 17 cities that already were on red alert, including some of major tourist attractions of Bologna, Florence, Rome, Turin and Verona.

Palermo’s courthouse suspended hearings until 29 June, while Florence’s Uffizi Gallery said it has extended a suspension of ticket sales imposed earlier this week, with only people with previous bookings allowed to enter, ANSA said.

“Due to the exceptional heatwave currently affecting the country (and Florence in particular) access to the Uffizi Gallery will be restricted to those with a pre-booked ticket only until and including Sunday 28 June. We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” Uffizi said in a statement.

James Michelin for MetDesk

Temperatures are forecast to rise dramatically in parts of central and northern Europe this weekend as the intense heatwave continues.

In Germany and Poland, highs up to or exceeding 40C are expected on both Saturday and Sunday, days after swathes of France experienced similar extreme temperatures.

The Austrian Grand Prix, taking place this weekend in Spielberg, has declared a heat hazard, the first race to do so this season. Temperatures are expected to rise into the low 30s celsius during the race, almost 10C warmer than usual for the venue.