texas power grid operator to warn people to cut back on the ac or face possible blackouts. extreme heat also roasting southern europe with wildfires raging in france and spain and a worsening drought in italy and portugal. and in the uk, monday was the third hottest day on record and today promises to be even hotter. even china is experiencing a massive heatwave with dozens of cities announcing heat alerts. we have live reports from north america, asia and europe and our coverage begins with melissa bell in france. reporter: southern europe in flames. vast swathes of the mediterranean engulfed by wildfires driven by the sweltering temperatures of europe s second heatwave this summer. from portugal through spain, italy and france, where one of two massive fires near the city ten to rage and spread. down here on the ground, you get a real sense of what the firefighters are facing. these parched conditions, the earth already dry for so many months of high temperatures and hose
line for as long as it takes. reporter: a desperate battle against time and temperatures that are set to rise further still. melissa bell, cnn, france. temperatures in britain hitting a new nighttime record and could easily break more records today. excessive heat is melting tarmacs and roads and even buckling train tracks. for the first time ever, the uk has issued a heat warning. nada bashir is live in london. nada, this extreme heat really pushing top government officials to meet. what are they hoping to achieve, what do they want to come out of these meetings? reporter: this is an urgent situation for the uk because of course figures like 40 degrees celsius or 104 degrees farenheit might be typical for other parts of the world, but this is unprecedented in the uk, well above average. and of course there were those emergency government meetings to