French authorities expanded red heat alerts to 58 departments as Météo France recorded the hottest day ever in mainland France, and network failures left up to 106K households without electricity while officials reported at least 40 drowning deaths as people sought relief in open water.Italy declared red alerts for 16 cities, including Milan and Rome, reporting localized blackouts as energy demand surged, the United Kingdom closed hundreds of schools, and governments from Poland to Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium and Croatia issued high-level warnings that disrupted transport and tourism.Climate researchers including
Davide Faranda said the heat dome intensified because the Mediterranean is extremely hot and Greenland ice melt is disrupting atmospheric currents, funneling scorching air into Europe as the continent warms about twice as fast as the global average, raising infrastructure and public safety risks.