Intense heat wave to strike Paris, shimmer across Europe

PARIS (AP) — The sunset had an orange glow and so does the new heat alert level for Paris.

Authorities around the French capital have issued an orange alert for intense heat — the second-highest level on its scale — as very hot temperatures are expected across continental Europe this week.

France's national weather agency Meteo France said the heat wave beginning Monday is expected to last all week with temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across the country. The peak is expected Thursday.

In Paris, charity organizations are patrolling the streets to provide water to homeless people and local authorities have organized air-conditioned places where they can seek shelter.

Meteorologists say the heat wave is caused by hot winds coming from the Sahara Desert.

The alert system was introduced in France following the summer of 2003, which saw an estimated 15,000 heat-related deaths, many of them older people left in city apartments and retirement homes that were not air-conditioned.

French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said Monday that "everything is ready, in retirement homes, in hospitals, in transports."

"Yet when people are fragile, even when everything is organized, there's always a higher mortality rate," she warned.

Organizers at the Women's World Cup, which is being hosted by France, could be faced with implementing FIFA heat precautions, since knockout soccer games are being played every day this week except Wednesday and Sunday. Those precautions include holding official cooling breaks or even postponing the match if the heat at the stadium is too high. Luckily, most of the women's games are being held at night.

Similar heat is also expected in Belgium, Switzerland and Germany.

In Germany, temperatures above 40 degrees C are...