Temperatures are sizzling across Europe this week amid an intense and prolonged period of heat.
Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heatwave with temperatures expected to climb to 48°C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
On Tuesday, the land surface temperature in the Extremadura region of Spain passed 60°C.
A high-pressure area coming from the south will cause temperatures to rise across much of Italy.
Temperatures on Sunday and Monday exceeded 45°C in some Italian cities - including Rome, Naples, Taranto and Foggia.
Along the east slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, many temperatures were recorded as over 50°C.
Source: Copernicus Sentinel data/ESATravel writer Joan Scales told Newstalk Breakfast the extreme heat is set to continue.
"It's not good news at all - it's high season, it's holiday time for everybody, mainly for families of course," she said.
"This heatwave has a name: it's called Cerberus, the Italian meteorological service has named it.
"It's after the three-headed God from Dante’s Inferno, so that will give you some idea of what they think is coming up.
"We've already hit our highest temperature in June, and it looks like July will surpass that".
The global surface air temperature in June 2023 was 0.53°C above the average temperature in June for the 1991-2020 reference period.
According to @CopernicusECMWF, this was the warmest June globally in this data record, exceeding June 2019, the previous record. pic.twitter.com/E3ekdzndAb— EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid 🇪🇺 (@eu_echo) July 12, 2023
Ms Scales said the heatwave will affect "all our favourite places": Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey.
"All you'll see is red all the way from Turkey all across to Spain, and of course Portugal as well," she said.
"I'm kind of saying to people, 'If you haven't booked you holidays, rethink it'.
"There's going to be more of this, this is not the only one".
A #heatwave is ongoing in Europe ♨️
➡️Many records 🌡️ have been broken in Austria, France, Switzerland, Germany and #Spain
⬇️As measured by #Sentinel3 🇪🇺🛰️, on 11 July the Land Surface Temperature exceeded 60°C in Extremadura 🇪🇸 #OlaDeCalor pic.twitter.com/mMvFmHTnet
— 🇪🇺 DG DEFIS #StrongerTogether (@defis_eu) July 12, 2023
Ms Scales has this advice for people battling the heat.
"Dehydration is a priority, so everybody needs to drink lots of water," she said.
"Watch for signs of dehydration: dry, sticky mouth, dizziness, drowsiness and not peeing.
"Keep an eye on that with the children in particular.
"Act like a southern European - get up early, do your thing in the morning and then hide during the afternoon.
"Don't plan any day trips during the day at all because you can't stay on top of sun protection all day long," she added.
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