Sweltering Europe relieved as heatwave relents

PARIS: Anxious farmers counted the cost and sweltering workers breathed a sigh of relief on Friday as a heatwave lifted from northern Europe after toppling decades-old temperature records.

At its peak on Thursday, the heatwave smashed national temperature records in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands while Paris baked in its highest ever temperature of 42.6-degree Celsius (108.7-Fahrenheit).

But the mercury dived in France with outbreaks of drizzle as state weather service Meteo-France lifted "red" alerts imposed in 20 departments.

There was however no relief for some travellers seeking to make their holiday getaways, with severe railway delays in Britain and France in the aftermath of the extreme heat.

The county of Lincolnshire in eastern England saw a hugely-unusual "heat burst" on Thursday evening, with temperatures soaring from 22C to 32C and then back down again to 22C over the course of an hour.

"This was due to a thunderstorm collapsing and bringing hot air from aloft down to the surface," the Met Office weather service tweeted.

In Germany, the country’s highest mountain the Zugspitze -- standing at 2,962 metres -- was still almost completely covered in snow despite a national temperature record of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit) on Thursday in the north.

"The thick snow cover has provided a buffer against the mountain absorbing the high temperatures this year," a spokesperson for the research station at Zugspitze said. Finland’s Meteorological Institute warned the thermometer could exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), breaking this summer’s high of 32.3C (90.1F).

While some Finns tried to escape the heat, others were not deterred from swimming in lakes and the sea, despite an outbreak of poisonous blue-green algae in popular spots.

In Paris, with public swimming pools overcrowded, many locals and tourists sought to cool off in public water features, notably the giant fountains at the Trocadero close to the Eiffel Tower.

"It is too hot to stay in the city in the daytime, there is nothing to freshen with. So for the kids it’s very cool to have this place with water," said Norwegian tourist Yensi.