Europe to be hit by high temperature ‘heat dome’ in coming days

18 August 2023, 11:01

Large parts of Europe are forecast to experiences high temperatures next week as a ‘heat dome’ brings scorching weather.

Spain, France and Portugal are among countries due to be affected.

Experts are warning of an increased risk of wildfires due to the heat, and the low levels of rain experienced in affected areas.

All-time temperature records for Europe tumbled earlier this year.

From Thursday, the new heatwave is expected to expand across Western Europe.

It has been called a heat dome - a weather pattern that sees hot air expanding into the atmosphere before being pushed down by high pressure, causing the air to heat up as it heads back towards ground level.

Last week temperatures in parts of Spain reached as high as 47C.

Parts of southern France and southern Italy are forecast to reach around 40C. Ground temperatures in southern Spain could reach as high as 50C according to weather tracking platform Ventusky.

Jim Dale, Founder and Senior Meteorological Consultant at British Weather Services, explained that the heat dome has been around for the last eight weeks or more and has come "from the Sahara, across Algeria and Morocco."

Met Office expert operational meteorologist, Rebekah Sherwin, said: "High pressure will build across southern Europe over the next few days allowing a steady increase in temperatures. The region will see higher than average temperatures returning over the next week, with temperatures expected to be 5-10C above average in places (into the high 30s or possibly low 40s Celsius)."