It is not only Sweden that has been affected by the sudden hot late summer heat. In the UK, this week measured its warmest August day in 17 years with 36 degrees in the London area.

At the same time, temperatures have risen to around 40 degrees in several places in Spain, France, Belgium and Croatia, among others.

Pictures in European media show smock-filled beaches, full of bathing and sunbathing people.

One such place is the Belgian coast, just a few kilometers long, where thousands of the country's 11 million inhabitants sought refuge in coolness.

- It is very hot. Maybe you see it in my face - I'm burning up, says a Belgian beach visitor to SVT News.

- It does not feel safe because of the corona, there are so many people here, says another.

With the heat, a number of serious problems have arisen, with forest fires and droughts in several places in southwestern Europe.

At the same time, people in northern Italy have been evacuated as they risk being hit by loose ice blocks from an all-too-fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc massif.

- Heat waves are not uncommon, but it is now temperatures much above normal for what it looked like a normal day in August for the past thirty years. That it has now been going on for several days and at the same time is very dry causes problems, says Maria Augutis, meteorologist at SVT.

Only at the end of the week does cooler weather pull in over central Europe.

- In the middle of the week, the heat on the Iberian Peninsula begins to subside. There may even be some rain, something they need. It's really dry. The heat remains in France and Germany for a few more days.

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