By: Alvin Xu

Dangerous discomfort is being felt across much of western Europe this week, a heat wave arrived, propelled by hot air blowing from Africa, sends temperatures flying.

The thermometer at London’s Heathrow airport went to 90 degrees when it was the hottest. On Friday, a lot of weather stations in France recorded their highest June temperatures.

Temperatures on Wednesday and Friday were some of the hottest days for June in Spain’s Valencia province since 1950. The Valencia airport set a record for the hottest day in June on Friday at 102 degrees, beating the mark set in 2017. One of the hottest temperatures recorded in this heat wave so far was in Andújar in southern Spain, which reached111.5 degrees on Friday. In Spain, authorities issued a lot of heat warnings and put almost the entire country under “extreme risk” of wildfire.

In southern Spain, hundreds of baby birds died after leaving their scorching nests too early. They built their nest on buildings, which are often made of concrete or metal, so it becomes very hot. “So it becomes an oven and the chicks, who can’t flu yet, rush out because they can’t stand the temperature inside,” Moreno Portillo said. “They’re literally being cooked.”.

The extreme heat coupled with the lack of rain has reduced some of Europe’s deep rivers to low levels. Italy’s Po, the country’s largest river is so low that shipwrecks are resurfacing and becoming visible again.