Governments in France, Portugal, Spain and Italy have rushed to put in place emergency measures to deal with the heat's worst effects, keen to show they have learned from a heat wave that caught them unawares in 2003, with Italy and France particularly hard-hit.

Italy revealed Monday that the number of heat-related deaths two years ago was more than double the original estimate. Almost 20,000 people died throughout the country, the national statistics office Istat said -- around 5,000 more than died in France.

Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace said around one million people are at a health risk from the sweltering weather this year.

Despite refreshing morning rainfall in Madrid on Monday, much of southern and central Spain has been sweltering in temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for weeks, though the weekend did bring some respite.

The southern region of Andalucia has already put in place a text-messaging alert system to warn the elderly and the infirm living alone, as well as parents of very young children, of impending high temperatures above 41 Celsius.

Aside from the boiling temperatures Spain has had to earmark 750 million euros (911 million dollars) of emergency aid for its farmers to tackle the country's worst drought for 60 years with rainfall 54 percent below average since the winter.

With Spain well used to high summer temperatures, many residential buildings are equipped with air conditioning which helped limit the 2003 official death toll to 101.

French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand promised to install a nationwide emergency system, including a requirement that all establishments for the elderly should have at least one air-conditioned room.

Four Italian cities -- Rome, Milan, Turin and Genoa -- are already under a health alert which involves placing some 10,000 people mostly elderly people under surveillance as a preventive measure to curtail any medical crisis.

The Europe-wide toll for the extraordinary heat wave of 2003 had previously been estimated at around 30,000 but the Italian figure would boost it to

Portugal was facing its worst drought in 60 years, with conditions described as extreme in half of the country by the national water institute, especially in the centre and south.

The lack of rain has caused farmers over one billion euros in damages and lost income, causing caused wells to run dry in 25 villages where some 19,000 affected residents were being supplied with water by truck.

In Germany, weekend showers brought respite after Friday saw the thermometer rocket to 36.2 degrees Celsius at Muehlacker, near the southern city of Stuttgart, a national record this year.

If temperatures had stayed around that level, Germans would have hoped to benefit from a heat wave day off, under a ruling that they can leave the schoolroom or the workplace if the conditions are stifling.

Over the border in Austria, at least 111 people were taken to hospital suffering the effects of heat -- combined in at least some cases with the effects of drinking alcohol -- following the traditional Donauindelfestival on the River Danube, as temperatures soared to 34 degrees.

Bulgaria's meteorological office forecast temperatures would hit 38 degrees in July, enough to prompt The Standard Daily newspaper to warn against going out at noon -- and also against going to the hairdresser's.

"Beautification procedures under hair-dryers ... risk ending up with a stroke," the daily warned.

In the continent's far north, Swedes have enjoyed comfortable temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius, and the Scandinavian nation's chief summertime worry was not heat wave fatalities but high levels of phosphorus in the Baltic Sea.

The phosphorus can lead to a toxic algae bloom that can cause fever, rashes and vomiting in humans and dogs, officials warned.

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