Sunday was the warmest day ever recorded at Prague’s Klementinum, the oldest Czech monitoring station. The temperature reached 37.9 degrees Celsius, the highest since measurements began in 1775. 

The previous record for the 30th of June at Klementinum was 35.7 degrees, set in 1950.

For June as a whole, the average national temperature was 20.7C, which was the warmest since 1961 when forecasters began monitoring monthly averages.

Across Europe, several other records were set as well, with a town in southern France reporting a new national high of 45.9 C on June 28.

Last week much of Europe sweltered in an early summer blast of scorching temperatures, as scientists warn that global warming linked to human fossil fuel use could make such heatwaves more frequent.

Author: red

The heat wave starts after Sunday when a powerful upper ridge develops over Europe. As soon as the omega pattern establishes, strong warm advection should take place with a ‘Spanish plume’ from SW Europe. Models are trending with very extreme temperature anomaly for the near-surface layers, locally reaching 12-16 °C above normal for late June.

On Thursday, the heat wave would eventually peak over Germany with local temperatures ever approaching 40 °C while on Friday, a cold front might push from the west and finish the heat wave, but the excessive heat would then push towards the Alpine region and Poland / Czech Republic as well.

Extreme heat could develop over some areas, locally reaching 35-40 °C in the afternoons next week. Such anomalous temperatures would likely break June records in some areas.

Prague has experienced its hottest summer last year, with an average temperature of 22.7° C.

Before, the hottest summer was recorded in 2003 with an average temperature of 22.4 degrees, followed by 2015, when the average temperature reached 22.3 degrees Celsius in June, July and August.

Author: red