Like colorful mushrooms, parasols dot the beach at Almada, on Portugal's Costa da Caparica. A particularly early heat wave is making people on the Iberian Peninsula find relief wherever they can. In the southern Spanish town of El Granado, on the border with Portugal, a new heat record for a June was set, at 46 degrees Celsius (114 F), according to Spanish weather service Aemet.

The heatwave in southern Europe has reached Germany: with highs of 30 to 38 degrees, the heat is spreading across almost the entire country on Tuesday. Some regions in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg have even issued extreme heat warnings. In many places, the only thing that helps is a dip in the cool water, like in this swimming pool in the Swabian Alb.

Almost as exhausting as the daytime heat are the night-time temperatures, which didn't drop below 30 degrees in southern Spain over the weekend, like here in Seville. Nights with temperatures above 20 degrees are also expected in southwest Germany, making restful sleep almost impossible without air conditioning.

The blazing sun rises over Paris on Tuesday. France has declared the highest heat warning level for the capital for the first time in five years, with temperatures of up to 41 degrees Celsius expected. Due to the heat, the upper floors of the Eiffel Tower, probably the city's most famous landmark, will remain closed to visitors until Wednesday.

In Venice, tourists have been forced to seek shelter under parasols during gondola rides. The Italian Health Ministry has declared the highest heat warning level in several regions, and a highway in Veneto had to be closed after it became deformed due to the heat. The German Foreign Office is currently warning against traveling to Italy due to the heat wave.

When only your feet are sticking out of the water, it's still just about bearable in Munich. Without cooling down, the high temperatures are a health risk: according to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, around 1,400 people in Germany have been treated in hospitals every year in the last ten years for health problems caused by sun exposure or heat; an average of 22 people died each year.

Outdoor sports aren't recommended in such high temperatures, prompting this jogger to go for an early morning run through Berlin on Monday while it was still relatively cool. Even without exertion, heat stress can be dangerous for the body. Young children and older people are particularly at risk. In addition to sun protection, people should drink plenty of fluids and seek out cool places.

Water sports like wakeboarding, however, are an ideal way to beat the heat. The peak of the heat wave is expected in Germany on Wednesday. The German Weather Service is expecting “sweat-inducing temperatures of between 33 and 39 degrees across the board," from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Forest in the south.

Temperature records were broken not only on land, but also in the Mediterranean Sea. Off the Balearic Islands, the water was up to 26 degrees Celsius — temperatures normally not recorded until August. In Greece, where this girl took a moment to cool off in an Athens fountain, strong winds have now made the heat somewhat bearable, but the risk of forest fires has risen to the highest level.

Elsewhere, fires have already broken out. In the Turkish province of Izmir, 1,000 firefighters and 14 helicopters are fighting a forest blaze that broke out on Sunday. Bushfires have already destroyed 400 hectares of land in France, and heat warnings are in place in 84 out of 95 regions. "This is unprecedented," Agnes Pannier-Runacher, France's ecology transition minister, told AFP.

The extremely high temperatures are also a problem for plants and animals; this dog and its owner managed to cool off in the Danube River. Heat waves are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more intense due to human-caused climate change, researchers report. The current temperatures in Germany are set to last until Thursday, when showers and thunderstorms are expected.