In the past 10 days, Europe has seen extremes on both ends of the thermometer. The heat wave commenced in the western end of the continent last month and is ending on the eastern end.

July starts off the scale cool for parts of Algeria, Spain and France while it’s opposite for Greece and Turkey.

Following the record heat from southern Spain up through France and into the UK, it turned decidedly chilly as an Atlantic trough drove cold air in. As a result, snow fell in Spain and France’s highest elevations while record low maximums were achieved on the north side of the Pyrenees. As the trough dove into western Europe, the heat swept across the continent. With the added boost from the African Sahara, the hottest temperatures of the entire heat wave were yet to come and they did during the past weekend over SE Greece and SW Turkey.

France’s Pic du Midi on morning of July 1.

Spain’s high sierra Nevada.

Record low maximums recorded.

While the west cooled dramatically, the east heated fast and furious. Greece and Turkey are typically hot and sunny in summer with 35-40C temps occurring each summer but the heat of the past weekend was exceptional.

While hot throughout southeast Europe, the heat was felt strongest along the Aegean coast of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

The Greek island of Crete may have witnessed their hottest day on record with Mires reaching 45.9C on Saturday July 1. It’s believed Heraklion recorded the island’s hottest temperature of 45.7C way back in 1916.

On Saturday July 1, Antalya, Turkey recorded a new all-time high of 45.4C, erasing the previous record of 45C set in July 2000.

To the west along the coast and on a peninsula sticking out into the Gulf of Gokova, Bodrum, comfortably eclipsed it’s all-time record of 45C reached way back 51 years ago with a maximum of 46.8C recorded yesterday.

Watch today’s video.

Tags: antalya, bodrum, crete, greece heat wave, marmaris, turkey heatwave