Issued: 0530hrs Thursday 2nd August 2018
Duty forecaster: David Hulse

Staying hot generally across much of the continent


Thursday
Dry and sunny with blistering heat across Iberia, temperatures climbing to 42 to 45C, locally a degree or so higher, inland across south-west Spain and Portugal ; values lower but still into the 30s around the coastal fringes.
Across much of the rest of Europe it will be hot too, with temperatures typically 30 to 35C, locally in the high 30s, although values in Northern France and the Low Countries will be a shade lower at 27 to 30C.
Dry and sunny across the Balearics, Corsica and Sardinia. Thunderstorms inland for mountain regions but a good deal of dry weather on the coast for Italy and the Adriatic.
Dry and sunny across much of France and the Low Countries, with only isolated showers. A risk of thunderstorms in the south and east of Germany these breaking out for the Alps, Carpathians and Balkan mountainous regions too.
Northern Greece may also see thunderstorms but it will be dry and sunny for most parts and most of Turkey will be dry too, just perhaps an isolated thunderstorm.
Lots of dry weather too across the north and west of Germany, Poland and southern Scandinavia. A few showers for western Norway , and some thunder in northern Sweden. Hitting 30C again in Finland, with local thunderstorms developing.

Friday
No respite from the heatwave for Spain and Portugal, with inland areas again seeing temperatures well into the 40s. Little change across the rest of Europe either, temperature-wise, many parts achieving the low to mid 30s, locally exceeding 35C. Hot weather aside, dry and largely sunny weather will continue for Portugal,Spain and the Balearics but it�s possible that thunderstorms may develop over Corsica and Sardinia.
Some sunshine around Italy and the Adriatic with coastal regions staying dry but, once again, cloud is likely to build and give thunderstorms over the mountains. France and the Low Countries will be dry and sunny. Germany and Poland will also be dry with spells of sunshine. Further east and south, however, thunderstorms will return to the Alps, Carpathians and Balkan mountains.
Much of Greece and Turkey will be dry with spells of sunshine but the north of Greece, in particular, will have thunderstorms with, perhaps, isolated storms over Turkey.
Largely dry over Southern Scandinavia and the Baltic States but Norway and Northern Sweden will have rain or showers. Some sunshine for Finland but with thunderstorms developing.