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It's just hot. Everywhere.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 20, 2006

Europe joined the United States in sweaty suffering as a heat wave swept over much of it Wednesday.

Lions licked blood-flavored ice blocks in the zoo, judges went wigless in court and guards at Buckingham Palace ducked into the shade as Britain faced the hottest day ever recorded in July. Temperatures hit 98 degrees south of London - so hot some road surfaces melted.

In the United States, the Northeast got a break Wednesday from the heat, but elsewhere temperatures topped 100 degrees by noon.

Two people died in Spain as temperatures climbed above 104, and officials in France said as many as nine people who died recently were believed to be victims of the heat.

London's Underground has no air conditioning and the Evening Standard newspaper measured the temperature in the train system at 117 degrees.

"It feels like the hottest day of the century," said Jean Thurgood of east London.

Construction workers in northwest England dumped crushed rocks on highways because the liquefying pavement was sticking to vehicles.

Across Europe, health officials warned people to stay out of the sun and to drink plenty of water.

France has had several days of dry heat and high temperatures - 97 degrees in Paris on Wednesday and 102 in Bordeaux a day earlier.

In Paris, heat-busters included four giant humidifiers placed around the Eiffel Tower that sprayed passers-by with water vapor.

It was 95 degrees in Berlin, 94 in Brussels, Belgium, and 96 in the Dutch city of Utrecht. In the Netherlands, the Nijmegen 4-Day March was canceled after two participants died in the heat. Some 300 people taking part in the walk became ill Tuesday in temperatures that reached 95 degrees and 30 were hospitalized.

At Britain's Royal Courts of Justice, judges were allowed to remove their traditional wigs for court proceedings. And in a rare move, the two-hour shifts of the royal guards who stand outside Buckingham Palace were reduced to one hour at the beginning of the week in preparation for the heat, said the London headquarters spokesman, Col. David Sievwright.

The heat that has stifled much of the United States since late last week has contributed to the deaths of at least 12 people: three in the Chicago area, two in the Philadelphia area, two in Oklahoma City, two in Arkansas and one each in Indiana, South Dakota and Tennessee.

Readings were forecast to top 100 in Plains states such as Arkansas and Nebraska through the end of the week. Shortly after noon, the temperature in Oklahoma City was 101 and Stillwater hit 102, the National Weather Service said.

"It takes two guys to do the job of one," said Kathryn Grooms of Grooms Sewer and Plumbing Service in Oklahoma City. "I've got one guy - of course he needed to lose the weight - but he's lost 60 pounds this summer."

In Omaha, Neb., the housing authority spent $25,000 to install window air conditioners in apartments used by elderly and disabled residents.

"It's a humanitarian thing," Brad Ashford, the agency's executive director. "It got to me personally. I just felt we needed to do this."

A FAVOR SHE'LL NEVER FORGET: Stephanie, a 34-year-old African elephant, gets a belly-blast of water from zookeeper Luke Koester in Wichita, Kan. Weather officials extended a heat advisory through today in the eastern half of the state, where the humidity was making it feel like as much as 115 degrees.

THERE'S NO HIDING: With the heat index near 105 degrees, Thomas Rogers uses a wet towel over his head to help beat the heat while walking home in Springfield, Ill., on Wednesday. Temperatures soared across Illinois, with the heat expected to approach 100 degrees over the next several days. Springfield was hit by a thunderstorm Wednesday afternoon, which lowered temperatures, but also knocked out power to about 21,000 homes.

OUT IN THE MIDDAY SUN: A dog cools off in Dorney Lake in Eton, England. Temperatures hit nearly 98 degrees, the hottest ever recorded in Britain in July.

THE FOOD STAYS HOT: Barbara Dix and her husband, Gregory, of Wilmington, Del., use an umbrella to stay out of the sun while eating crabs during the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield, Md.

BEST WAY TO BEAT HEAT: Wade Cobb, 8, top, and Adam Perry, 9, leap into the pool as they cool off in Hattiesburg, Miss., where the high was 96, but humidity made it feel as hot as 109.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 00:52:40]