A firefighter sprays water over festival-goers on the fourth and last day of the 30th edition of the musical festival Les Vieilles Charrues in Carhaix-Plouguer, western France, on July 17, 2022. France and Britain went on high alert on Monday, bracing for record temperatures from a punishing heat wave as deadly wildfires raging in parts of southwest Europe showed no sign of abating. Photo: VCG

France saw record temperatures for September hit the country, notably the southwest, amid a heatwave drifting up from Morocco, the Meteo-France weather service said on Monday.

The thermometer hit 39.1 C at Mont-de-Marsan in the southwestern Landes department and 39 C at nearby Dax.

Regional capital Bordeaux saw 37.5 C - topping a previous September high of 37 C in 1987 - while Tarbes further south in the Pyrenees saw 37.2 C, more than a degree up on the 35.8 C seen in 1964.

Neighboring Pau managed to beat that with a baking 38.9 C, easily surpassing the 36.3 C it had seen in 1970.

Even some 600 kilometers further north, in Nantes, temperatures were a barely less scorching 35.1 C, unheard of for the area in September.

The intense heat - coming on the back of a scorching summer which saw a series of horrific wildfires in the southwest - results from "hot air coming up from Morocco and propelled by a depression, the post-tropical cyclone Danielle, currently off the coast of Portugal," a Meteo-France forecaster told AFP.

France saw three heatwaves between June and August, the result of an air depression in the Atlantic Ocean as scientists lined up to blame the phenomenon at least partly on climate change.

This summer was France's second-hottest on record with average temperatures 2.3 degrees above the norm, a slew of large-scale wildfires which ravaged much of the southwest and widespread drought as well as several severe storms.

Another large forest fire raged Monday at Saumos on Bordeaux's western outskirts as firefighters reported the evacuation of some 200 local people as a precaution, according to French media reports. 

Forecasters said in contrast to the summer the current hot weather would not last, with a dip in temperatures starting from midweek, remaining above 30 C on Tuesday before returning to normal by the weekend.

AFP