UK weather heats up as Europe smashes records

Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands have all seen their record temperatures slashed this week as Europe faces its second extreme heat wave in a month.

Belgium: Temperatures rose Wednesday to 102 Fahrenheit (39.2 Celsius), the hottest ever recorded in the country, according to the national weather service. The record-breaking temperature was reported in Diepenbeek, in the eastern province of Limburg.

Germany: The German town of Geilenkirchen hit 104.9 Fahrenheit (40.5 Celsius) on Wednesday, according to the national forecasting center -- but it warned that the coming days would be even warmer, and the record could be broken yet again. Nearly all of Germany remains on heat alert.

The Netherlands: The country hit an all-time high of 102.7 degrees Fahrenheit (39.3 Celsius) on Wednesday, breaking a 75-year record, according to the national weather forecasting institute. Most of the Netherlands remains under an extreme heat alert, which is expected to stay in place until Saturday.

Notre Dame survived a massive fire months ago, but the beloved Paris cathedral is facing a new threat: a heat wave.

The high temperatures bearing down on Europe may be a threat to the ailing building, according to Chief Architect Philippe Villeneuve.

"I am very worried about the heat wave because, as you know, the cathedral suffered from the fire, the beams coming down, but also the shock from the water from the firefighters. The masonry is saturated with water," Villeneuve told Reuters on Wednesday.

The fire destroyed the roof of the 850-year-old building and toppled the spire, which was added during a 19th-century renovation. Now experts fear the structure could give way under the stress of record-breaking heat.

"What I fear is that the joints or the masonry, as they dry, lose their coherence, their cohesion and their structural qualities and that all of sudden, the vault gives way," Villeneuve said.

Over in France, it's set to be even hotter, with meteorologists predicting the heat wave to reach its peak Thursday, with temperatures of 42 C (107.6 F) expected in Paris. On Tuesday, temperatures reached at 41.2 C in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, a record for the city.

In preparation for the intense heat, the national weather service, Météo France, put 80 of its 96 regions on high alert.

A red alert -- the highest level -- has been issued in 20 of the divisions. The other 60 are currently on an orange alert -- the second-highest warning level.

"We wanted to alert everyone, and no one is without risk," French Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn said. "Common sense must prevail, everyone must feel assured by the red level that this will affect all 20 regions. It is a health alert for all citizens."

French Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu earlier called for awareness of the high risk of drowning. More than 40 drowning deaths were registered during the week of the first heatwave peak at the end of June -- an unusually high number "closely related to heat waves."

Predictions of the hottest day on record in the UK come as British academics call for heat waves to be given names, to ensure the associated dangers are conveyed clearly to the public.

"The Met Office must do more to warn people about the dangers of heat waves and should give names to heat waves the way it does for winter storms," the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science said Tuesday.

The institute cited data from Public Health England to highlight an estimated 863 "excess deaths" as a result of three heat wave events last summer, which was the hottest on record in England.

"Far more people in the UK have died from recent heat waves than from storms, so it should be uncontroversial to start applying names to both," said Bob Ward, the institute's director of policy.

He added: "The government and its agencies, including the Met Office, must lead the way in communicating the growing dangers of heat waves and other impacts of climate change, so that the British public are better informed and can protect themselves."

"If the government does not lead on this issue, it also risks encouraging the media to continue to underplay these risks in their coverage, and there will continue to be preventable deaths," Ward said.

Weather forecasters in the UK say the country will sizzle this week in a heat wave that could set a new record for hottest day.

Temperatures will peak on Thursday, when the mercury could reach a sweltering 39 Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit), according to the UK's national weather service, the Met Office.

The hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK is 38.5 C (101.3 F), recorded in Faversham, southeast England, in August 2003, according to the Met Office.