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By the numbers: What to know about Europe's record-breaking heat wave

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

LONDON (AP) -- Much of western Europe has been baking under a "heat dome" this week, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places.

The extreme conditions have come in June, earlier in the summer than is usual. Records are tumbling by day and by night. Add in the humidity and it's more tropical than temperate.

The heat is coming up from north Africa and affecting Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom -- most of them without widespread air conditioning and unused to such oppressive heat.

Conditions are expected to ease in coming days, though July and August, the traditional height of the European summer, are still to come.

Here are some standout numbers that illustrate the depth and breadth of the heat wave:

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43.8 C (110.8 F)

The hottest temperature in France this week, recorded in the small southwestern town of Pissos on Wednesday.

327

The estimated number of deaths in Spain that could be attributed to the heat wave between Sunday and Thursday, according to the Health Institute of Carlos III in Madrid, an official Spanish monitoring agency.

Temperatures in Spain have exceeded 38 C (100 F) in many places since Sunday. The monitoring agency gives statistical estimates of excess mortality attributable to heat, but the heat wave cannot officially be determined as the cause of death. Researchers use models based on a decade of mortality records and temperature and demographic data to reach such estimates.

41.3 C (106.3 F)

The highest temperature ever recorded in Germany, set in Saarbruecken, near the French border, on Friday. That figure topped the previous record of 41.2 C (106.1 F) that was set on July 25, 2019.

30 C (86 F)

The average temperature measured at 30 French weather stations by the Meteo France weather agency on Wednesday. The agency said it was the first time ever the average has been that high, making Wednesday the hottest day in France on record.

While the figure may seem low, it was measured day and night and shows this latest heat wave is much broader than others before. More than three-quarters of France have been placed under a red weather alert for the first time ever.

37.3 C (99.1 F)

The temperature recorded in Santon Downham, in Suffolk, England on Friday marked the hottest June day the country ever saw, according to Britain's Met Office. Forecasters have extended a red alert for heat in much of central and southern England and Wales.

35 C (95 F)

The trigger for The Netherlands to issue its first ever code red warning for extreme heat. The code applies when the temperature is over 35 C for several days. The Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute said the highest possible alert was in effect for most of the country for all of Friday.

At least 40

That's how many people have drowned in heat wave-related incidents in the past week in France, as people seek relief in rivers and other bodies of water despite authorities' warnings about unsupervised swimming. Most of the drownings involved young people, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Tuesday.

43.7 (110 F)

The all-time record temperature recorded earlier this week in the small northern Spanish region of Cantabria, which is known for its cooler weather and green landscape. The current heat wave has affected Spain's normally more temperate northern regions along the Atlantic coast.

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Associated Press writers Pan Pylas and Danica Kirka in London; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Geir Moulson in Berlin; James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf, Germany; Molly Quell in The Hague, Netherlands; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.