Temperature records tumble across Europe as heatwave moves east

A woman and her dog walk under a water sprinkler at the Podgorski Square in Kraków, Poland. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen A woman and her dog walk under a water sprinkler at the Podgorski Square in Kraków, Poland. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Temperature records tumble across Europe as heatwave moves east More than 191m people in Europe face temperatures over 35C, with extreme heat warnings from Germany to Hungary ‘A sad inevitability’: after decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat? Poland, Czechia and Slovakia are braced for record temperatures of over 40C as a heatwave linked to hundreds of deaths in western Europe spreads east. More than 191 million people in Europe faced temperatures of at least 35C on Sunday, with extreme heat warnings in Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary. Poland’s all-time temperature record of 40.2C from 1921 could be broken on Sunday. The Polish government’s security agency sent out text messages urging people to “avoid the sun and strenuous activity”, drink water and wear hats throughout the weekend. Multiple cities set up water curtains to help residents keep cool in the heat. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute said it expected temperatures to exceed 41C “by quite a bit”. View image in fullscreen People cool off in the Vltava River in South Bohemia in Czechia. Photograph: Michal Čížek/AFP/Getty Images Czechia’s all-time record of 40.6C was recorded on Saturday. Temperatures did not drop below 20C at more than 100 meteorological stations overnight. But the institute said Sunday would be even hotter. “Yesterday’s record will most definitely be broken again,” it said. It also expected further records for the warmest night ever to be broken on Sunday night. Night-time records were also broken in Germany, with Bautzen in eastern Saxony reporting an overnight minimum temperature of 29.4C. The Berlin police used water cannon to help residents of the capital cool off on Saturday and will repeat the operation on Sunday. German rail operator Deutsche Bahn advised against all non-essential travel over the weekend. In Slovakia, temperatures above 39C were reported in the south-west of the country, with the all-time record of 40.3C, set in 2007, likely to be beaten on Sunday or Monday. The country could see three consecutive days of temperatures above 40C for the first time since records began in 1871, forecasts show . View image in fullscreen People rest in the shade in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photograph: Mads Claus Rasmussen/EPA Denmark had on Saturday registered its highest temperature since measurements began in 1874, with 36.6C north of Odense. Meanwhile, France has begun counting the death toll of its heatwave. The French national public health agency said that between 24 and 27 June, 1,000 additional deaths were recorded compared with figures in previous months. These figures were provisional and were expected to rise significa