The heatwave is also setting records in countries not known for high temperatures.
Great Britain's historic heat record was broken on Tuesday before noon: in Charlwood in Surrey, southeast England, the meteorologists measured 39.1 degrees just before noon.
Shortly thereafter, the Heathrow weather station reported that the 40-degree mark had been broken for the first time.
Temperatures of up to 43 degrees were considered possible by the afternoon.
Cambridge had been the hottest place so far, with the 2019 thermometer reading 38.7 degrees.
Before that, the tropical night had made history.
In many places in England and Wales, temperatures had not fallen below 25 degrees.
Up until then, the warmest night had been measured in Brighton, where the temperature on August 3, 1990 had not dropped below 23.9 degrees.
Numerous railway companies ceased operations on Tuesday;
London Tube had limited service.
The road surface burst on several freeways.
In London, the Supreme Court closed because of the heat.
At least 170 schools have sent their students home, and numerous operations have been canceled in hospitals.
In the meantime, newspapers debated whether the enormous attention paid to the heat wave and the sense of threat it evoked was justified.
Skeptics calculated that extreme weather conditions in the past would have claimed many more victims.
A columnist in the Daily Telegraph wondered if the British could have created an empire if they had been so sensitive back then.
He imagined how Queen Elizabeth I would have forbidden the explorer Walter Raleigh to set sails with reference to the weather forecast.
On the other hand, it got a little cooler in Spain on Tuesday.
But the outcome of the heat wave, which officially ended on Monday, is devastating.
According to the state health institute Carlos III.
510 mostly elderly people fell victim to the extreme heat between July 10th and 16th.
150 deaths were registered on Saturday alone.
In the meantime, it is no longer just a question of whether households have air conditioning, but also whether residents can afford to operate it because of the high energy costs, said Julio Díaz from the Carlos III Institute.
The temperatures will probably drop only slightly and could soon reach values of 40 degrees again, so that there is no end in sight to the risk of forest fires.
The newspapers appeared on Tuesday with headlines such as "Spain on fire".
While the fires in Extremadura and Andalusia have been contained, the situation in Zamora, Ávila, León, Lugo and Ourense is worrying.
The freshening wind is also worrying.
On Tuesday, 38 fires were counted, more than 20 of which were out of control.
There is therefore already talk of the worst summer in 15 years.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 300 fires have destroyed almost 140,000 hectares - almost seven times more than in an average year and up to 60,000 hectares in the past week alone.