A heatwave across France brought an all-time high temperature for late summer on Tuesday, the weather authority said.
Before a peak in the August hot spell expected in the second half of the week, the nationwide average temperature over 24 hours hit 26.9°C, Meteo France announced Wednesday.
Such continuously high temperatures have never been recorded so late in summer, the weather bureau said.
Monday had already brought temperatures topping the previous 26.6°C record set in 2012.
Nineteen of mainland France's 96 departments were on red alert for heat on Wednesday, with 37 others at the lower orange warning level.
"A lasting and intense heatwave is in place across the southern two thirds of the country," Meteo France said.
Maximum temperatures in southern regions including the Rhone valley, the Occitanie region bordering Spain and the Aquitaine region around Bordeaux could reach 42°C, the authority said.
Southern France wildfire - in pictures
Meteo France said much of the south would see temperatures coming close to or touching 40°C on Thursday, with minimum temperatures passing 20°C.
While the south is bearing the brunt of the heatwave, the north is not escaping weather-related misery altogether.
Parts of the north-west – although not Brittany – were being placed on orange alert from midnight on Wednesday for risk of severe gales accompanied by hailstorms and heavy rain.
Meteo France warned of wind gusts reaching 100kph.
Wydad 2 Urawa 3
Wydad Nahiri 21’, Hajhouj 90'
Urawa Antonio 18’, 60’, Kashiwagi 26’
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
Top Hundred overseas picks
London Spirit: Kieron Pollard, Riley Meredith
Welsh Fire: Adam Zampa, David Miller, Naseem Shah
Manchester Originals: Andre Russell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Sean Abbott
Northern Superchargers: Dwayne Bravo, Wahab Riaz
Oval Invincibles: Sunil Narine, Rilee Rossouw
Trent Rockets: Colin Munro
Birmingham Phoenix: Matthew Wade, Kane Richardson
Southern Brave: Quinton de Kock
