Soaring temperatures continue to sweep parts of Europe, while Okinawa faces powerful winds and storm surges Europe live – latest updates Unbearable, record-breaking heat has domina…

Soaring temperatures continue to sweep parts of Europe, while Okinawa faces powerful winds and storm surges Unbearable, record-breaking heat has dominated the summer of 2026 across much of Europe. New records were set in central Europe last week, with Wieselburg in Austria registering a new July peak of 40.3C (104.5F). This is particularly significant as it is just 0.2C behind the all-time high, set in the August of 2003. However, not all of the northern hemisphere has experienced extreme heat and aridity. Vancouver recorded its wettest July since 2016 and the third wettest since 2008, with 33.6mm of rain. While that total may not appear exceptional, it is only a touch above the 1991-2020 climate average, highlighting how unusually dry July has been in the Canadian city over the past decade. Meanwhile, Typhoon Dolphin has continued to barrel westwards across the Pacific Ocean towards Japan and Taiwan. It became the fifth category 5 tropical cyclone of 2026 and ranks third for wind speed, behind only typhoons Bavi and Sinlaku. Dolphin reached maximum sustained wind speeds of 175mph on Thursday, with a central pressure of 910mb. The storm intensified rapidly over just 36 hours. On 27 July, it was a tropical storm, however, exceptionally warm sea temperatures of about 30C fuelled its swift transformation into a super typhoon. Another contributing factor was its unusually compact structure, with hurricane-force winds extending only 52 miles from the centre. By comparison, a powerful typhoon such as Dolphin would typically have a hurricane-force wind radius of about 100 miles. As of Monday, Dolphin has been downgraded to a category 3 storm, with sustained wind speeds of 125mph. As it continues westwards towards the island of Okinawa, it is forecast to weaken further and make landfall as a category 1 or 2 typhoon. However, wind speeds of 80-100mph are still expected to affect the archipelago and remain strong enough to cause widespread damage and disruption. The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential