Temperatures set to hit 26C early next week

Met Éireann is forecasting highs of up to 26C this coming week, with the highest temperatures expected on Monday and Tuesday.

Last month Ireland experienced its hottest May on record when a high of 30.9C was recorded in Abbeyfeel, Co Limerick, and Clonmel, Co Tipperary on 25-26 May.

High temperature records in much of Western Europe are likely to be shattered in coming days as the mercury is expected to continue rising.

French authorities have issued a red heatwave alert across more than a third of the country for Sunday as the heatwave continued and the government banned the consumption of alcohol during the annual Fete de la Musique festivities.

Authorities are concerned about how the Fete de la Musique celebrations will unfold across the country on Sunday when musicians take over the streets with free performances and revellers party into the night.

"Very high temperatures are settling in for the long term across the country," Meteo-France said as it announced the highest heatwave warning for 35 of France's departments, or administrative regions, for Sunday.

Paris is one of the regions on the red-alert list.

Forecasters warned of an "intense and long-lasting" heatwave that could see temperatures in Paris soar above 40C for the first time on a June day.

Across the continent, authorities were ramping up warnings of extreme weather. German forecasters said parts of the country needed to be on alert for thunderstorms, hail and heavy rain over the weekend.

Read: May temperature record broken by over 2C - Met Éireann

Meteorologists confirmed that England and Wales had already experienced the hottest spring ever recorded, though temperatures in Britain were not expected to be as intense as continental Europe.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is amplifying such extremes, with heatwaves, droughts and floods becoming more intense and frequent.

The current heatwave is already the second of the year for many, and means summer is kicking off for tens of millions of Western Europeans with another spell of extreme heat.

Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany have all raised alert levels for the coming days, as have some cities in northern and central Italy.

The UK's Met Office said there was a 40-percent chance of beating the record temperature for a June day, set in 1976.

Spain's civil protection agency has warned of a prolonged spell of extreme heat affecting most of the country and the Balearic Islands from Sunday and through much of next week.

Schaffhouse, a town in northern Switzerland, yesterday recorded its hottest June temperature ever at 35.7C, and the mercury is expected to rise across the country in the coming days, putting other records at risk.

With climate change, "we're seeing more extremes of temperatures, we're breaking records more frequently", Alex Deakin from the UK Met Office told AFP.

"When you get hot spells, they're that much hotter. And when you get rainy spells, they're that much rainier," he said.

France is at the heart of the current upsurge, with the country having just experienced its hottest spring since records began in 1900.