Heat wave in the world breaks records 1:27
Paris (CNN) --
Raging wildfires have scorched thousands of acres of forest in France and Spain, as Britain faces its hottest day on record amid a blistering heatwave.
The southwestern region of the Gironde, in France, is the one that has suffered the worst consequences of the flames.
A total of 14,300 hectares (35,000 acres) of land have burned as of Monday, with 24,000 people evacuated from the region, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Gironde prefecture said on Twitter.
Authorities deployed 1,700 firefighters to deal with the fires.
A spokesman for the Gironde regional fire and rescue service said 12 firefighters have suffered minor injuries since the start of the operation.
In Spain, forest fires swept through the central region of Castilla y León and the northern region of Galicia on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Firefighters brought the flames under control in Mijas, in the southeast of Malaga province, and said the evacuees could go home.
Ukraine's harvest becomes the new battlefield as fires blacken its farmland
The sweltering temperatures in Portugal have exacerbated a drought that began before the heat wave, according to data from the national meteorology institute.
About 96% of the continental territory was already suffering from severe or extreme drought at the end of June.
advertising
intensity peak
The scorching heat wave in Western Europe is expected to peak early this week.
Monthly minimum temperature records could be broken across France this Monday, according to the national weather agency.
Météo-France has identified nine locations where it seems that the monthly minimums will be broken, including Rostrenen, in Brittany (north-western France), where the record has been held since 1968.
In addition to Gironde, Météo-France issued a red heat wave alert for a total of 15 departments in the western and southwestern regions, as temperatures are expected to reach as high as 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.
Another 51 regions have been placed on orange alert, including Paris, with residents being asked to avoid going outside between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time.
"Given the peak intensity expected today, the chances of the mercury dipping sufficiently before the end of the day" so that these records are not broken are slim, Météo-France added.
Why are Spaniards suffering from the second heat wave?
0:40
Since May, France has only seen eight days where daily average temperatures were lower than the aggregate summer average temperatures.
In the remaining 39 days, the national daily averages have been above the average temperatures for this time of year observed between 1991 and 2020, according to data from Météo-France.
The Spanish meteorological agency also issued extreme heat alerts on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) were forecast for the northern regions of Aragon, Navarra and La Rioja.
The agency said the heat wave would end on Monday, but warned that temperatures would remain "abnormally high."
Nearly half of Europe, including the UK, is "at risk" of drought, European Commission researchers said on Monday.
The Joint Research Center highlighted that the drought in much of Europe is "critical" as the "winter-spring rainfall deficit...was exacerbated by early heat waves in May and June".
The water supply may be "compromised" in the coming months, according to the report.
The hottest day in UK history
A group of people eat ice cream outside Parliament House in London on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning for extreme heat in parts of the UK on the possibility of further rising temperatures. temperatures this week (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali).
Elsewhere in Europe, Britain is bracing for the "hottest day in UK history," according to a senior weather official.
On Friday, the Met Office issued its first red alert for "extreme heat" due to rising temperatures.
Met Office CEO Penelope Endersby said Monday could be the "hottest day in UK history" but Tuesday "is expected to be even hotter".
"So it's tomorrow that we're really looking at the highest probability of 40 degrees and temperatures above that," Endersby told BBC Radio on Monday.
"Even possibly above that, 41 isn't off the cards. We even have some 43 in the model, but we hope they won't be that high."
Endersby said that although extreme temperatures are not expected beyond Tuesday, the Met Office will monitor the possibility of a drought in the coming months.
"We expect a big drop in temperatures during the night and until this Wednesday, with a drop of 10 or 12 degrees compared to the previous days," he said, adding: "Our attention is focused, once these two days are over, on drought and when we might see some rain, and we don't see any significant rain going to happen.
Joseph Ataman, Jimmy Hutcheon, and Xiaofei Xu reported from Paris. Zahid Mahmood and Sana Noor Haq reported from London. CNN's Renee Bertini, James Frater and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to this article.
EuropeFires