How Europe’s punishing heat wave is affecting people — and how they’re responding

Europe’s early, widespread and deadly heat wave is smashing temperature records on the continent and affecting how people learn, work and play.

Here’s a visual rundown of how the heat is affecting day-to-day life in Europe — and how people are doing their best to cope.

In France, where temperatures in Paris have topped 40 C, at least 55 deaths have been reported. French hospitals are in emergency mode, the Paris Pride march was postponed and Le Monde daily newspaper reported people in France are sleeping in basements or taking air-conditioned public transport to avoid the heat.

About 3,500 schools were closed on Thursday, Le Monde reported. At the public school Marie-Anne du Boccage school in Nantes, France, parents coated the windows in Blanc de Meudon, a chalk-based powder, to protect their children from the heat.

(Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

Across the country, people have been jumping into canals and rivers to cool off. The Bassin des Recollets — a portion of the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris — has been opened for swimming since June 17. Below, people try to keep cool at the canal Thursday.

(AFP/Getty Images)

The partygoers pictured below drinking under a mist sprayer at a music festival in Bordeaux, France, on June 21 will need to find a non-alcoholic way to keep cool. French authorities announced a ban on drinking alcohol in public Friday, even as France plays in the World Cup.

(Romain Perrocheau/AFP/Getty Images)

The heat wave spans most of Europe, including Romania, more than 1,700 kilometres from France. Below, a girl wearing a traditional outfit uses a handheld battery-powered fan to cool down during an event marking summer solstice in the capital Bucharest on Wednesday.

(Andreea Alexandru/The Associated Press)

Parasols and umbrellas have been a common sign across the continent. Here, people use parasols to protect themselves from the sun as they queue outside a shop in London on Friday. Britain’s Met Office extended a red heat alert, covering a large ‌area of southern and eastern England, into a third day for the first time, while a temperature of 36.9 C meant the British record for the hottest June day had been broken on three successive days.

(Kirsty Wigglesworth/The Associated Press)

In Germany, extreme heat caused the surface of the A2 motorway to buckle and rupture over several lanes on Thursday evening. Below, hot air shimmers as workers try to repair the damage near Burg, Germany, on Thursday.

(Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/DPA/AP)

Below, a winter salt truck sprays water instead to keep a road in central Germany cool.

(Jacob Schröter/DPA/AP)

Of course, not only humans are affected by the heat. Here, a giraffe eats a block of frozen fruit made by staff at the Bioparco zoo in Rome on Friday.

(Remo Casilli/Reuters)