The all-time heat record for France was broken at 16:20 on Friday 28 June. The thermometer in the town of Gallargues-le-Montueux reached 45.9 degrees Celsius. This surpassed the previous all-time high by two tenths of a degree, which had been set on 12 August 2003, also in the same area, at Saint-Christol-lès-Alès and Conqueyrac, with 44.1 degrees. On the same Thursday, the previous record had already been broken twice — with 44.3 degrees, reached at 13:48 in Carpentras, France, and then shattered in the early afternoon in Villevieille, in the Gard department, where the thermometer reached 45.1 degrees in the shade.

Eighty departments on red and orange alert in France

"This is a historic event," commented meteorologist Etienne Kapikian on France Info radio. And there is no guarantee that the record just set will not be broken again in the afternoon. Four French departments have been placed on red alert by the Météo France service — the highest level possible — while a further 76 are on orange alert.