There are casualties: the extreme heat that has descended has begun to set new temperature records

Temperature records have been broken as extreme heat has gripped parts of Europe. Unprecedented temperatures are causing hardship in southwest France, Croatia, Italy and Spain, while the number of wildfires across Europe has increased by 87 percent.

Extreme heatwaves are breaking temperature records across Europe and fuelling more widespread wildfires, according to preliminary measurements, The Guardian reports.

In southwestern France, records were broken on Monday in Angouleme, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion and Saint-Girons. France's meteorologists said the region had seen "often astonishing, even unprecedented, maximum temperatures" of up to 12 degrees above normal over the past few decades.

In Croatia, temperature records were set in Sibenik (39.5°C) and Dubrovnik (38.9°C), while major forest fires raged along the country's coast and spread to neighbouring countries in the Balkans.

Beyond Europe, dozens of temperature records were broken in Canada, and record heat of over 50 degrees Celsius in Iraq caused nationwide power outages.

The heatwave in southern Europe comes as northern countries recover from unprecedented temperatures above 30C above the Arctic Circle this month, The Guardian notes.

Bob Ward, director of policy at the Grantham Research Institute, comments: “This summer, like every summer at present, has been exceptional in terms of extreme heat around the world.”

In Italy, where 16 of 27 major cities were placed on high alert and a four-year-old boy died of heatstroke, and Spain, where a man died in a forest fire with burns to 98% of his body, the heat did not break many records, but alarm bells were still ringing.

“The main characteristic of a heat wave is its duration and magnitude, not its intensity,” says José Camacho, a climate scientist and spokesman for Spain’s meteorological agency Aemet. “But temperatures are still very high.”

In southwestern France, 40% of weather stations recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius on Monday. Lauriane Batteux, a climate scientist at France's Meteorological Centre, said it was too early to say whether records had been "broken" rather than simply smashed, but noted that the geographic extent of the heatwave was significant.

“Unfortunately, this was to be expected,” she said, adding that more than half of the 51 heat waves observed in France since 1947 have occurred in the last 15 years. “This is clearly a sign of global warming.”

Hot weather across Europe has parched vegetation and fuelled the spread of wildfires in what scientists have called a “Molotov cocktail” of climate conditions, The Guardian reports. EU fire experts are forecasting “extreme conditions” across the continent this week, with “particularly severe” risks in much of southern Europe and high anomalies expected in some northern countries.

Forest fires in Europe have burned more than 400,000 hectares this year, 87% more than the average for this time of year over the past two decades, according to figures released on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of people die each year from extreme heat in Europe. Researchers estimate that by the end of the century, dangerous temperatures in Europe will kill between 8,000 and 80,000 people a year, as those killed by more extreme heat outnumber those saved from milder cold.

Antonio Gasparrini, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said implementing effective and varied public health measures was crucial as heatwaves became more frequent.

“Another heat wave is set to hit Europe this summer,” he said. “As with previous events in recent months, we can expect not only a significant death toll, but also significant geographical differences in excess mortality.”

Last week, the World Meteorological Organization said wildfires and poor air quality were exacerbating the health impacts of extreme heat. It noted that temperatures during the first week of August reached more than 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of West Asia, southern Central Asia, much of North Africa, southern Pakistan and the southwestern United States, with some areas exceeding 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

"This is what climate change looks like," says Bob Ward. "And it's only going to get worse."