Issued: 0530hrs Wednesday 16th July 2008
Duty forecaster: John Ejdowski

Temperatures over 40C for south west Iberia

Today
Mostly a dry day to come for the United Kingdom with sunny spells. Early rain across Holland and northeast France clears to sunny spells. An area of rain across northern Germany moves into central parts in the afternoon with showers in the south. A hot day across Iberia with a few sharp showers for eastern Spain and the western Balearics otherwise sunny and dry. Sunny and very warm weather will prevail from southern France into Italy, Greece and into Turkey.
A belt of rain will lie from western Russia into the Baltic States into Poland. Another area of frontal rain will affect Belarus and the Ukraine with a risk of thunderstorms. Just a few showers to come across Slovakia and Hungary with a very warm, sunny day across Romania, the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Fine and sunny too across the Alpine Region. Very unsettled across Scandinavia and breezy with outbreaks of rain. Highs will be around 22C in both London and Brussels, 24C for Paris, 29C for Madrid, 28C in Rome, 234C in Bucharest, 32C in Athens, 23C in Warsaw and 22C for Stockholm.

Thursday
Some rain moves in across the United Kingdom today. Rather cloudy today across Belgium and Holland with some rain and showers tending to fade in the afternoon. An area of rain will lie from western Russia into Belarus, the Ukraine in to Romania, Germany, the former Czech Republic across the Alpine Region.
Mostly fine and dry across Poland today but heavy showers are expected across Denmark and Sweden with rain across Norway and Finland. Another very warm to hot day across Iberia with sunny skies but a few heavy thunderstorms will affect eastern Spain and the Balearics today. Continued dry, sunny and very warm across France, Italy into the former Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. Sunny as well for Bulgaria and Romania.