A dangerous heat wave scorching Europe this week is breaking records and forcing people to seek shade and water, as well as refuge indoors.
Triple-digit temperatures baked Spain and Portugal earlier this week before moving on to France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and other areas of Europe, AccuWeather reported.
Madrid set a new record for its June heat on Monday when temperatures reached 103.5 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Weather Channel, and southern Spain's Cordoba experienced 110.7 degrees on Sunday. A heat of 98.1 degrees at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday set a new record for July heat in all of the U.K., while the 103.5 degrees recorded in Paris that same day was the hottest reading in the city since 1873.
While history's deadliest heat wave -- centered in France in 2003 -- killed 70,000 people across Europe, Slate notes that such fatalities are unlikely to happen now thanks to an increase in preparedness and warning systems, including daily phone calls to the most vulnerable people.
Research suggests such extreme heat waves, including the one in India that killed more than 1,400 people last month, are largely the result of human-caused climate change. A study published last year in the journal Nature Climate Change found that Europe is now 10 times more likely to see another heat wave as intense as that of 2003 than it was one decade ago.
See photos below of how Europeans are coping with this summer's heat wave.
AP Photo/Andres Kudacki
People cool down in a fountain beside Manzanares river in Madrid on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
ROMAIN LAFABREGUE/AFP/Getty Images
Nurses help a woman cool off with a bucket of water at a residential care home for dependent elderly people in Lyon, France, on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
An orangutan at a zoo in Rome eats a popsicle given to it by zookeepers trying to keep the animals cool on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu
A woman carries an umbrella to protect herself from the sun while walking near the Seine river in Paris on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
A man in Berlin cools off with water from a public fountain on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images
Two dogs play with a stick while cooling down in a fountain in Madrid on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP/Getty Images
A notice at a home for elderly persons in Bordeaux, France, instructs residents on how to stay safe during the heat wave on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
People sit in a sliver of shade in downtown Rome on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.
Holger Hollemann/dpa via AP
A gray langur at a zoo in Hanover, Germany, eats a chunk of frozen fruit and vegetables on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos
A woman in Pamplona, Spain, fans herself on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images
A woman drinks from a public fountain at Paris' Palais Royal gardens on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos
Children cool off at a water fountain in Pamplona, Spain, on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau
Two women take shelter under umbrellas on the promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images
A girl stays hydrated in the heat near a fountain in the Tuileries Garden in Paris on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images
A woman in Madrid cools off with the help of a fan from a bar's terrace on Sunday, June 28, 2015.
