BRITAIN: Temperatures in Britain hit an all-time high for July yesterday, touching 36.3 degrees south of London to edge out the previous record set in 1911, Britain's met office said.
In France, a heatwave has probably caused the deaths of nine people since the start of the week, a health ministry official said yesterday.
The peak in Britain came amid an intense heatwave stretching across the country which has melted road surfaces and shut schools.
It was reached in Britain at Charlwood in Surrey, near Gatwick Airport. The previous July high of 36 degrees had been reached in Epsom, also in Surrey. The average maximum temperature in July is 21 degrees.
British officials have urged people to keep cool after some 2,000 people died in a heatwave in the UK three years ago. The department of health is asking people to keep an eye on the elderly, young children and those with chronic disease.
Police in Leicester also warned about swimming in rivers and canals after a 14-year-old boy drowned on Tuesday.
In London, officials were laying on plenty of water for 8,000 guests at a garden party at Buckingham Palace for military veterans after several guests at a similar palace event fainted on Tuesday. "There is shade for them, all the marquees are used," and helpers were on hand for any guests who may feel unwell, a palace spokesman said.
Further north, officials at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where the British Open starts today, warned smokers to be careful about stubbing out cigarettes on the tinder-dry course.
The met office spokesman said he expected temperatures to cool over the next few days. He did not expect temperatures to rise above the all-time British high of 38.5 degrees recorded at Faversham in Kent, on August 10th, 2003.
French authorities are also on high alert. Most of the nine deaths this week were registered in the southwest, where the temperature almost reached 40 degrees.
"There is no certainty for the moment. We are still trying to establish the cause of death," a health ministry official said.
Forecasters say temperatures should fall in the coming hours as thunderstorms start to sweep through much of France.