PARIS – France has hit its highest recorded temperature – 45.9°C (114.6F) – amid a heatwave in Europe that has claimed several lives.
The new record was measured in the southern village of Gallargues-le-Montueux. Before this year the previous record was 44.1°C during a heatwave in 2003 that killed thousands.
Health Minister Agnès Buzyn warned that “everyone is at risk.”
France’s weather service has issued an unprecedented red alert for four areas.
Those are all in the south, but most of the country remains on orange alert, the second-highest level.
Meteorologists say hot air drawn in from northern Africa is responsible, caused by high pressure over central Europe and a storm stalling over the Atlantic. (BBC)
