00:52 Heat's Silent Killer Heat has a silent killer and Matt Sampson has the signs to look for.

An extended heat wave smashed all-time records in parts of Europe for the second time this summer, but relief is finally being felt in many areas.

Triple-digit heat prompted Poland's national supplier to cut electricity to factories for several hours last Monday. The combination of this extended heat plus dry weather has left rivers used to cool Poland's power plants running low.

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz asked residents to conserve energy between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. this past week, but said there would be no power cuts to individual customers or hospitals.

Wroclaw, Poland, set an all-time high temperature last Saturday, Aug. 8, reaching 38.9 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, who maintains a comprehensive set of extreme temperature records on his site . The average high in early-mid August in Wroclaw is only about 23C (74F).

Weather Underground's Bob Henson reported Germany tied its all-time record high last Friday, Aug. 7, when Kitzingen soared to a high of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit), tying the national record it set on July 5.

Henson also said Friday, Aug. 7, was the hottest day of record anywhere in the Berlin, Germany, metro area, as Kaniswall station, on the city's southeast side topped out at 38.9C (102F).

At least 19 cities in the Czech Republic tied or set new all-time heat records, according to Herrera .

(MORE: Weather Underground's Record Extremes )

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/europe_heat_early_aug.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/europe_heat_early_aug.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/europe_heat_early_aug.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Heat Wave Pattern Upper-level jet stream pattern responsible for the latest Europe heat wave.

In an internal email, Herrera said Minsk, Belarus, bested its previous all-time record high set just one year ago, reaching 35.8C (96.4F) on Saturday, Aug. 8. Other all-time records were set during this heat wave in Genoa, Italy (38.5C/101.3F), and Kaunas, Lithuania (35.3C/95.5F), according to Herrera .

Thursday early-afternoon temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of eastern Austria, western Slovakia, Croatia, northern Serbia, southwest Romania, and southern Ukraine. Budapest, Hungary, hit 36.4C (98F) on Thursday .

Fortunately, there is relief underway.

The persistent broad upper ridge of high pressure responsible for the record warmth is effectively being pushed away by a trough that is swinging through western Europe.

Some areas seem to have swung from one extreme to another. According to Florida State University Meteorology Professor Bob Hart's coolwx.com website , several daily record low temperatures were either tied or broken on Saturday across the United Kingdom, Spain and France.

This considerably cooler air should gradually shift east, giving locations that had extreme heat earlier this month a welcome break in the heat wave.

Just over a month ago, a late June and early July heat wave smashed monthly and some all-time records in the U.K., France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.

(FLASHBACK: Record Smashing June/July Heat )

"This July 2015 was the warmest July on record for Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Austria," said Weather Underground Director of Meteorology, Dr. Jeff Masters .

(MORE: Warming Doubles Chances of Europe Heat Wave )

"Europeans have been painfully aware of the dangers of extreme heat since the killer heat wave of July 2003," said weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. According to the United Nations, an estimated 30,000 Europeans (14,000 in France alone) died in that heat wave, making it the deadliest natural disaster of the past 50 years in Europe.

(MORE: Extreme Heat Waves, Cold Snaps More Frequent )

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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