WEATHER IN EUROPE

globeandmail: Glaciers melting in Europe
Castel Gandolfo, Italy — Britain sweltered through its hottest day on record Sunday and Alpine glaciers melted as the heat wave that has baked much of Europe for days sizzled on relentlessly.

"It is just miserable. You can't get any respite from it," says Londoner Ranald Davidson, squinting in the late afternoon sun as Britain surpassed 37.7 C for the first time.

The national weather service recorded 37.9 Celsius at Heathrow Airport, near a parched and baking London. Northern parts of the country were cooler, and torrential rain created problems in North Yorkshire.

Germans, too, have had record heat. In the Bavarian city of Roth, the temperature hit 40.4 C on Saturday. The previous record of 40.2 C was also in Bavaria, set in 1983

Independent: Heat threatens safety of nuclear reactors as France girds for
electricity rationing
The French government is considering national electricity rationing
after engineers warned that they can no longer guarantee the safety of the
country's 58 nuclear power reactors because the heatwave is defeating
efforts to cool them. A crisis meeting this morning at the Prime
Minister's office will be told that France - which depends more heavily
on atomic energy than any other European country - faces the prospect of
shutting down half its power grid.