The heat has already hit Europe, marking the start of a predicted heatwave. In Whitstable, UK, ice cream trucks are doing a roaring trade and people are flocking to the beach to cool off by the water.
The temperatures predicted by meteorologists are already worrying health professionals.
In the UK, the Met Office indicates that temperatures are expected to exceed the 32.8°C recorded in May 1944 in the coming days.
The British Heart Foundation warns of the specific risks that heat can pose to people with heart conditions.
And as the British bank holiday approaches, Cancer Research UK indicates that its latest figures predict a record 20,800 cases of melanoma in the UK this year.
The organization states that skin cancer rates in the UK have increased by almost a third over the past decade.
The UK, which has so far experienced a wet and cool spring, will see temperatures climb by 15 degrees Celsius this weekend.
This meteorological phenomenon is described by some scientists as a "heat dome," with the pressure trapping hot air over countries like a lid.
Climate researcher Mireia Ginesta, from Oxford University, explains why temperatures are rising.
"What we are experiencing is essentially a change in wind direction: we had northerly winds from higher latitudes, therefore colder winds last week, but from now on we will have southerly winds."
She explains that these southerly winds circulate in a clockwise direction, bringing heat from North Africa and Southern Europe.
Professor Hannah Cloke, from the University of Reading, goes on to explain that the dome analogy comes from the fact that high pressure continues to trap heat over the continent.
"There's this area of high pressure that's stagnating over Western Europe, including the UK. This means everything is sinking. So the air sinks and warms up as it descends, while also dispersing the clouds. All of this traps the heat near the surface. It's a bit like covering everything with a blanket," she explains.
Cloke points out that there are rumbling thunderstorms near Spain, which could mean that the expected heat will not persist.
While it is usually the countries of southern Europe that experience extreme temperatures, Ms. Ginesta says the heat will particularly affect the west and center of the continent.
She explains: "In reality, this will mainly affect the United Kingdom, France and the Benelux countries more than southern Europe or Spain and Portugal, because the high-pressure system will be particularly centered over Central Europe; therefore, it is essentially these regions that will experience significantly higher temperatures than usual."
Solar radiation emitted by the sun is divided into two categories: shortwave radiation, which comes directly from the sun, and longwave radiation, which corresponds to the heat reflected by the Earth's surface.
Professor Ronita Bardhan, from the University of Cambridge, explains that the highly urbanized environment of most Western cities traps the sun's shortwave radiation, thus amplifying the heat that has nowhere else to go.
She explains: “When solar radiation hits our environment, imagine that there are no buildings, no constructed infrastructure, that everything is natural: part of it would be absorbed by the system, by the Earth system, and the other part would be released. What happens when these long and short waves hit is that some of it is released, but the short waves continue to be reflected within our system. Because we now have a built environment, we have built cities in such a way that these short waves remain trapped in this built environment and are constantly reflected within the urban space.”
Scientists are not ready to speculate on how long this unusual heat wave in May will last, but they say the warming of the Pacific Ocean means that as autumn approaches and later in the year, Europe will begin to feel the effects of a "super El Niño" type weather system.
Ginesta states: "We are going to see the formation of a super El Niño in the coming year, which will likely lead to more heat waves next year, of course. But in this particular case, we don't think it fundamentally influences (the current high temperatures)."
As Europe prepares for a sunny weekend, sun lovers are reminded to remain cautious in the heat.
Cancer Research UK points out that approximately 17,000 cases of melanoma per year could be prevented. Nearly 90% of cases in the UK are caused by excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and tanning beds.
