The UK weather may have settled down into something typically British, but across the channel the exceptional start to summer continues. Two things I'd like to share with you:

Eastern France so far this July: 7C above average. Current forecasts showing the month beating July 2003 and getting close to August 2003 in some regions. This article discusses the return of the "canicule" (literally, dog days) this week

http://www.bienpublic.com/environnement/2015/07/12/vers-un-nouvel-episode-caniculaire-en-fin-de-semaine

And Spain so far this year has had a season more like the surface of Venus than this earth. Possibly up to 47C in Andalusia this week, and one Navgem run last week (I know, I know) had the far SW touching 50. Another article In French I'm afraid:

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-07-13-11h47/espagne---45-c--vers-une-canicule-historique---28410.php

I would love to post English language articles but sadly the British media only notices Europe if people are dying of heat or it's also hot over here. French weather journalism is streets ahead of our sorry media.

They had been very lucky this year while we lost out the potential heat and still get denied access to prolong hot spells here only living off crumbs and even on 1st July was rubbish due to being too short and not enough time to experience it, plus the few hour clouds damaged the potential higher temps. 

Agreed the media too as the always look for negative side instead of positive side for hot weather that many tourists WANT for their holidays. 

I'm sure they don't have idiots like Nathan Rao and James Madden to contend with.....

I think the heat will ooze northwards to the SE of UK with time over the next week.

If ever the westerlies relax in the right place at the right time this month, we could find ourselves in some serious trouble.

Amazing to think that I was banging on about the risk of a serious European heatwave back in late April/early May, based largely on there being a lot of significant positive SST anomalies in the western Med. and far-eastern N. Atlantic.

As it happens, unusually dry spring conditions across many parts of NW Europe have also played a role - something that I didn't give much thought to several months back.

Remarkable that the Romans believed stars to hold such power. At least they had them down as very hot objects which is very much the case 

44C at Córdoba today, and the "mini heatwave" is peaking in France: 41C at Brive in the South West, 40C at Agen, Vichy and Gourdon, 39C at 7 French stations and a creditable 38C just over the border in Geneva. Large swathes of France were in the high 30s today and the centre-east is expected to repeat this tomorrow.

Very lucky for them to enjoy record heat while we miss out here and the case of whole summer so far bar from 1st July. Surely we are overdue for some real heat to come further north and nationwide again very soon before time run out as the continent will start cooling down by mid August.

It is a shame that this extra-ordinary heat is not having more of an affect on the UK.

Being here in the extreme SE of Kent there is some minor repurcussions of this. Locally the temperature has not fallen below 16c at any time for over a week now.

Temps of 40C plus?  No thanks.  Our continental cousins are very welcome to that sort of heat.

While here we welcome 32-34C heat which is the normal maxes for a hot spell and we haven't got those heat yet except 1st July.

We have struggled to get above 16c.....totally foul !

The July record was broken - that in itself is noteworthy!

Just be grateful that your town/city has not been flooded 3 times this month (so far). Summer 2015 is not one that will be remembered positively in terms of weather for quite a few northern parts. 

It was too quick on that day so it long forgotten now as ones in July 2006 still remember freshly as they took it time to reach 36.5C then slowly back down with lot of decent days.  Just viewed the pictures of the flooding in Cambridge yesterday morning and some businesses suffered from that.

[quote=Brian Gaze;709537]I'm on my way back home from L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue where I've been for most of the last 2 weeks. It hasn't felt much hotter here than usual regardless of the stats. I expect the bigger temperature anomaly is farther north. Day time maxes must have been ranging between 34C to 40C. Glorious and hardly a cloud to be seen.[/quote

 Just looked that place up ,looks very nice. There is some lovely countryside in France.

It a really shame that UK had miss out a potential good summer and never seen a summer that EU enjoying the heat while UK the only place in N Hemisphere had got nothing at all so far bar the poor performance on 1st July for being too short.  

I think here in the UK this summer will go down as the "unfair summer".

It's a baked landscape down here with severe water restrictions now in force. Hopefully this will fill up the ponds and give nature a much needed drink.

39C in a number of places along the Saone Valley and Lyonnais today. Sadly nowhere seems to have hit the magical 40.

And that's now looking like the swansong for the French heatwave and maybe also for the secheresse. Copious if amounts of rain and much cooler temperatures (relatively) the next few days as that "degradation pluvio-orageuse" sets in.

That's right, TWO unfair summer moaners: the French heatwave and drought is about to break with two days of spectacular thunderstorms. Anyone fancy emigrating? Because it's posdible, you know. EU membership means you can do it without having to cut barbed wire fences or walk through the Chunnel. The weather of your dreams is a short drive away. Just no jobs, unfortunately.

I don't think 39C is the weather of anyone's dreams, unless you're a baked potato. I think I'll keep the weather we have here over the dangerous heat they have in Central Europe.

I know that a heatwave would be at least interesting, but do people on here really think of 36-39C as pleasant? I find that hard to believe. I just don't see the need for such excessively high temperatures.

Those thunderstorms do look interesting though!