The scorching heat is causing wildfires to rage across Europe.

According to AFP, temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius were recorded in Spanish cities throughout the past week. On June 19, emergency response agencies had to deal with several wildfires in the north of the country. The most alarming fire, which occurred in the Sierra de Culebra mountain range, destroyed more than 25,000 hectares of forest, according to regional authorities.

Firefighters said that milder temperatures overnight made firefighting easier. Residents of about 20 evacuated villages were allowed to return home.

Wildfires also occurred in Germany, where temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius in the eastern states of Brandenburg, Thuringia, and Saxony. In the city of Cottbus, Brandenburg, the temperature was 38.7 degrees Celsius, the highest for June in Germany.

Local authorities said a fire in Brandenburg, a suburb of Berlin, forced the evacuation of 700 people, as the blaze threatened three-quarters of the town of Treuenbrietzen.

In the Vorarlberg canton of western Austria, temperatures reached a record 36.5 degrees Celsius in the town of Feldkirch, near the Swiss border. The country's ZAMG meteorological institute reported that June saw twice as many days exceeding 30 degrees Celsius as usual. Much of Switzerland also experienced a heatwave. The meteorological agency reported that June 19th saw several more temperature records broken. While Geneva was stifling at 35 degrees Celsius, several other towns also recorded high temperatures, such as Neuchatel and Fahy, where temperatures surpassed the record of 34 degrees Celsius.

According to France's national meteorological service, Meteo France, Biarritz, a popular seaside resort in the southwest, recorded its highest temperature ever on the afternoon of June 18th, reaching 42.9 degrees Celsius. Many other places in the region also exceeded 40 degrees Celsius.

With authorities banning swimming in the Seine River, suffocating Parisians sought relief from the heat in the city's fountains. "This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France since 1947," said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Meteo France.

Some towns in northern Italy have imposed water restrictions on households, while the agricultural association Coldiretti says dairy cows in the country are producing 10% less milk due to the heatwave.

The rising temperatures coincide with scientists' predictions that such phenomena would occur earlier in the year due to alarming global warming.

"Due to climate change, heatwaves are starting earlier. Unfortunately, what we are witnessing today is only the prelude to the future," said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.

Anh Thi