Portugal hits 46.6°C. Spain, France, Germany record their hottest June days in history

Reported by: News Agencies 

Cities across Europe are experiencing higher than usual temperatures, including Zaragoza (39C), Rome (37C), Madrid (37C), Athens (37C), Brussels (36C), Frankfurt (36C), Tirana (35C) and London (33C).

The hot weather front known in Germany as Bettina is expected to have nearly the entire country in its grip by Wednesday, with temperatures shooting toward the 40C mark and only the coasts and Alpine peaks spared the scorching temperatures.

In Paris, which was on maximum heatwave alert, parents were advised to keep their children at home on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some other towns, including Troyes and Melun, closed all their schools.

In Portugal, temperatures hit 46.6C in Mora, a town in the Évora district, in recent days, making it the highest June temperature ever recorded in the country, according to the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere.

The Spanish state meteorological agency, Aemet, said in a social media update that “June 2025 smashed records” when it came to high temperature, with an average temperature of 23.6C, 0.8C above the previous hottest June in 2017.

The monthly average was also 3.5C higher than the average over the period from 1991 to 2020, it said.

The agency’s comments come just days after Spain’s highest ever June temperature of 46C was recorded in the Huelva province of Andalucía.

In France, the prime minister, François Bayrou, tried to calm anger at the heatwave crisis in French schools. More than 1,896 schools across the country were fully or partially closed on Tuesday.

Tourists meanwhile, were confronted with closures of some of Europe’s popular attractions. The top of the Eiffel Tower was shut as temperatures in Paris were poised to hit 38C (100.4F). In Brussels, the Atomium monument, famed for its giant stainless steel balls, closed early as temperatures inched towards 37C.

The savage temperatures are believed to have claimed at least three lives, including that of a small boy who is thought to have died from heatstroke while in a car in Catalonia’s Tarragona province on Tuesday afternoon.

In Italy, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, two industrial hubs, announced they were stopping open-air work between 12.30pm and 4pm, joining 11 other regions – stretching from Liguria in the north-west to Calabria and Sicily in the south – that have imposed similar bans in recent days.