Europe continued to bake in an intense heat wave and cooler conditions in the coming days may bring only short-lived relief.

Health authorities in France and Germany issued red alerts as a lingering high-pressure system – known as a heat dome – keeps much of the continent in the grip of dangerously hot weather.

Daytime highs in central France may reach 39C (102F) Wednesday, according to forecaster Météo-France. That’s down from a peak of 41.3C in Nimes on Tuesday, but still far above seasonal norms. The country has suffered searing heat since mid-June, and the top of the Eiffel Tower remains shut to visitors.

In Germany, the Upper Rhine Valley and the Kraichgau region could also reach 39C, according to forecaster Deutscher Wetterdienst. The extreme weather has triggered amber and yellow heat warnings across much of the rest of the continent.

Temperature readings may again topple records this summer as climate change drives up the intensity and frequency of heat waves, threatening the health of millions and stressing power systems. The hot weather increases energy demand for air-conditioning, and also threatens nuclear generation, with rising river temperatures curbing the means to cool reactors.

That’s a particular issue in France, which gets about two-thirds of its electricity from its atomic fleet. And in neighboring Switzerland, Axpo Holding AG shut a reactor at the Beznau plant on Tuesday due to the warming of the Aare River, Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor reported.

The heat is also hurting businesses. Shares in British bakery chain Greggs Plc plunged as much as 17% on Wednesday after it warned that high temperatures in June discouraged people from going out. Cows in the northern Italy region of Lombardy are reportedly producing 10% less milk on average compared with other times of the year, according to the Italian farmers organization Coldiretti.

While some parts of northwest and central Europe are set to get some relief in the coming days and into next week, models from the European Centre for Medium-Term Forecasts show high pressure and unusually warm temperatures returning to the continent by the middle of July.

However, calmer conditions will curb wind-power output, according to an analysis from MetDesk.

In Spain, temperatures are expected to exceed the long-term average for most of this month, data from Atmospheric G2 and Bloomberg show. In neighboring Portugal, the weather has already cooled, though several districts in the interior remain at the second-highest alert level.

The scorching heat, caused by a blast of Saharan air and amplified by unusually warm seas, made last month the hottest June ever recorded in England and Spain, forecasters said. England had its driest spring in more than a century, while January-June rainfall in Potsdam, Germany, was the lowest since at least the 1890s, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The hot and dry conditions are likely to return around mid-month and then linger, said Atmospheric G2 meteorologist Amy Hodgson.

“Unfortunately there looks to be little relief regarding this through July,” she said.

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