Paris ? How hot is it? So hot that there was an ice cream shortage in Sweden. So hot that Polish lawmakers held a special Mass to pray for rain.

Europe, from north to south, east to west, has sizzled through July with power outages and scores of deaths. The heat wave even brought a sinister reminder of the past, with officials in eastern Germany warning that World War II munitions might surface as river levels dropped.

In Ireland, where the average temperature in July is normally 59 degrees, the temperature soared to 88 on July 19 – the hottest day since August 1995.

“It’s amazing how quickly we’ve got used to it. We seem to think we’re Mediterranean now,” said Brendan O’Connor, a newspaper and TV satirist. “There’s even a danger that we’ll start drinking sensibly.”

Elsewhere, records also were being set. Germany, like Britain, has experienced the hottest July on record.

In France, officials were frantic to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2003, when 15,000 people – most of them elderly – died of heat-related causes.

This year, medical students were recruited to help doctors and advice was broadcast day and night on radio and television with reminders to drink water and stay indoors. A media campaign to boost neighborliness, and ensure no elderly are forgotten, went into full swing.

A woman cools off on a public water fountain Friday in Milan, Italy. Temperatures reached 95 degrees as a heat wave affected most European countries.

Still, French health authorities reported 64 deaths by Thursday.

Throughout July, temperatures cruised in the high 90s to more than 100 in Europe – high for a continent where air conditioning is generally the exception.

But as anyone taking public transport knows, it was hotter than that.

In Britain, road surfaces melted, and the Evening Standard newspaper measured temperatures on the Underground at a stifling 117 degrees.

Governments scrambled to respond to heat-related ailments.

In Poland, lawmakers held a Mass in the parliamentary chapel last week to pray for rain to break the baking heat.

Their prayers may have been answered.

Storms were moving across Europe with the skies opening up Friday in Ireland and storms predicted over the weekend in France and other places.