"Millions of people around the world are experiencing a scorching summer, as records are broken and thermostats climb this week in parts of Europe. Temperatures in Paris and Brussels exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit at a time of year when 70-degree weather is the norm, according to Accuweather.com.

In Bandar-e Mahshahr, Iran, temperatures climbed to 115 F last week. The temperature, together with high humidity, felt like 163 F to hapless people directly exposed to the weather, according to Accuweather.

That is the second-highest known "heat index" value ever recorded, said Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather aficionado who maintains one of the world's most comprehensive datasets of extreme temperatures. The highest heat-index value ever recorded was 174 F in 2003 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, he said. The highest air temperature in an inhabited area was recorded in Gotvand and Dehloran, Iran, and Turbat and Sibi, Pakistan, in the 1990s, when the thermostat climbed to 127.4 F (53 degrees Celsius), Herrera said."

Gayathri Vaidyanathan reports for ClimateWire August 6, 2015. [2]