Europe wilts under early heatwave from the Med to the North Sea

People cool off at the fountain of the Trocadero garden next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Thursday, June 16, 2022. Hot weather is expected to last for several days across the country. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea is bringing much of western Europe its first heatwave of the summer, with temperatures forecast to top 30C from London to Paris on Friday.

Experts said the unusually early heatwave is a sign of what is to come as global warming continues, moving up in the calendar the extreme temperatures that Europe would previously have seen in July and August.