(Bloomberg) -- London will reach a high of 32C (90F) on Friday, while a blast of Saharan heat is blanketing the Mediterranean.
Temperatures across the UK will start to climb on Thursday as the jet stream moves north. Some parts of the country won’t drop below 20C overnight into Saturday, a threshold known as a “tropical night.” But the heat will be short-lived, with more unsettled weather from Sunday.
“For the last few weeks, we’ve been on the northern side of the jet stream and over the next few days, its position will change,” Met Office Meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth said.
Further south, hot air from North Africa is forecast to raise temperatures in Spain’s Guadalquivir valley to as high as 44C tomorrow. Greece and Italy are also facing sweltering conditions, with nighttime lows staying above 30C in many places.
Climate change has brought hotter summers and more extreme weather to Europe in recent years, threatening the health and livelihoods of millions in southern regions.
All archaeological sites in Athens will be shut from midday to 5 p.m. on Thursday, as temperatures soar to as high as 42C across the Greek mainland.
At the same time, there’s a high risk of wildfires from Greece and Spain to southern France and Italy.
Since the early hours of Thursday, Greek firefighters dealt with 48 wildfires, of which 44 were contained and four were still being tackled, Fire Department Spokesman Vasilis Vathrakogiannis said in a televised statement.
The combination of the heat wave, drought and strong winds is making for “a very difficult day,” he said.
Fires that broke out close to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-biggest city, and on the island of Kea have been contained.
Some residents of Rome were told to keep windows shut and avoid using air conditioning to prevent potentially toxic smoke entering their houses from fires in three boroughs of the capital. Those blazes have now been contained.
--With assistance from Sotiris Nikas.
(Updates with latest on Greek fires in eighth paragraph.)
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