A cold front extending from the middle of France up through Germany is keeping much of Northwestern Europe in a showery slightly cooler than normal airstream. However, to the South of this front, a large area of high pressure that is almost stationary is bringing very hot weather to many parts of Southern and Eastern Europe at the moment.
These very high both day and night temperatures have warranted red heat warnings to be issued for the next couple of days at least for many places including Italy, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. In Croatia the highest daily max is expected to be 35 to 41 degrees Celsius and the lowest air temperature to be 19 to 24C, and in the Adriatic from 24 to 29C.
Close to the dividing line between the very hot and cooler air lies Austria and the south of France which has orange alerts in force for severe thunderstorm activity.
Over the next few days, the fresher air will sink very slowly a little further Southeastwards and, as a result, it will become a little less oppressive over Croatia later in the weekend and early next week bringing with it thunderstorm activity. This heavy rain and thunderstorms will then move into Hungary and Romania but with the hot dry weather expected to persist over Greece and around much of the Mediterranean.
Red heat alerts are issued when maxima in excess of 30C or minima in excess of 20C are expected to persist for 2 or more consecutive days.