AFP, Stockholm

Meteorologists across the Nordic countries have registered near-record temperatures over the weekend, including highs of 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in some places, news agencies reported Monday.

The latest figures came as New Zealand yesterday recorded its hottest June on record as temperatures continued to soar in a pattern consistent with global warming, a government scientific agency said.

Finland’s national meteorological institute Also registered its hottest temperature for June since records began in 1844. Kevo, at the far north of Finland, recorded heat of 33.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday, the hottest since 1914 when authorities registered 34.7 degrees Celsius, said the STT agency.

Several parts of Sweden also reported record highs for last month. At a national level, June 2021 was the third-hottest ever recorded in Sweden.

And Norway’s meteorological institute registered 34 degrees Celsius in Saltdal, a county near the Polar Circle. That is the highest temperature measured in the country this year, and just 1.6 degrees Celsius short of Norway’s all-time record.

Several parts of the world have already experienced crushing heatwaves this year.

Canada is battling a string of forest fires in the western province of British Columbia after sweltering under temperatures of up to 49.6 degrees Celsius, a new national record.

On Thursday, the United Nations confirmed a new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent -- measured last year -- of 18.3 degrees Celsius.

In New Zealand, daily temperatures averaged 10.6 Celsius -- 1.9C above average despite a cold snap late in the month, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said.

“It’s huge. There’s only been 13 times since 1909 that we’ve had such an anomaly,” NIWA scientist Chris Brandolino told public radio. “What’s alarming is that over the past 10 years that’s happened six times.”