More than a thousand schools were closed in France on Tuesday and the top floor of the Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists as a severe heatwave continued to grip Europe, triggering health alerts across the region.
The Mediterranean Sea was up to 6 degrees Celsius warmer than usual for the time of year, hitting a record of as much as 30 C in Spain's Balearic Sea as a heat dome trapped hot air above Europe, the country's Aemet weather forecaster said.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, making extreme heatwaves occur earlier in the year, and persist into later months.
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