Europe faces heat wave, raging wildfires and dire drought

This is the summer that climate change impacts are becoming overwhelmingly obvious and costly across much of Europe.

The big picture: Western Europe's fourth region-wide, fierce heat wave of the summer is well underway.

It's pushing temperatures into the triple digits Fahrenheit in Portugal, Spain, and France, and close to that level in the United Kingdom.

French firefighters are battling a nearly 20,000-acre blaze in the Gironde region that has forced thousands from their homes, while other fires burn elsewhere in the heat-affected regions.

That wildfire, burning in pine forests south of...