In southern Spain, the heat continued to pound the tourist city of Cordoba reaching 44C.
In Catalonia in the northeast, a fire on the border with France forced the closure of a highway between both countries for several hours.
A wildfire in San Vicente de Alcantara in the southwest on the border with Portugal raged as strong winds and high temperatures fanned the flames. The soaring mercury has already claimed the lives of three people who died of heatstroke.
In Monchique, a forest fire raged on two fronts, aided by “a temperature of 46 degrees but a real feel of 50 degrees” and very little humidity in the air, Victor Vaz Pinto, head of rescue operations in the district, told local media.
In Lisbon, authorities have closed playgrounds and called on people to avoid picnics and other outdoor activities.
In the Austrian capital of Vienna, police dogs due to patrol a beach volleyball tournament were fitted with special shoes to withstand the scorching heat.
In the Netherlands, authorities closed certain sections of highways where the heat had melted the asphalt.
A total of four nuclear reactors in France have been closed due to the heatwave.
French power company EDF said the measures were taken to avoid temperature hikes in rivers. The nuclear plants draw water from rivers to cool down the reactors and then return it to the river.
As the sun beat down temperatures soared to 41.3C at Beziers in the deep south.
Italy too faced the summer’s busiest day on the roads for the same reason as France and media reported one woman aged 79 had died from apparent heatstroke on a beach in the northwestern Liguria region.
Thousands more mountain residents were evacuated from the path of California’s biggest wildfire on Friday as fatigued firefighters battled gusting winds driving one of the state’s worst fire seasons in a decade.
The Mendocino Complex Fire grew to 157,450 acres late Friday, about half the size of Los Angeles, forcing nearly 16,000 homeowners to flee a blaze that has destroyed 88 structures about 150km north of San Francisco.
