Europe wilts under record heat, AC sales soar

Europe braced Wednesday for another day of an unprecedented heat wave that has smashed records in many countries and sent air conditioner sales zooming in a continent unused and ill-equipped to handle searing heat.

The extreme weather is being driven by atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, causing the mercury to slowly rise, with these factors exacerbated by global warming, experts say.

France's national temperature indicator -- an average of daytime ...