After a summer of drought, heat waves and forest fires, violent storms are whipping France and have flooded Paris subway stations and snarled traffic. 

Winds of more than 100 km/h were filed at the top of the Eiffel Tower during a fleet flood Tuesday, and similar winds were forecast Wednesday in the southeast.

Hail hammered Paris and novel regions in Tuesday's sudden storm. Rainwater gushed down metro spot stairwells and onto platforms, and cars sloshed along embankments where the Seine River used its banks.

In southern France, thunderstorms overnight and Wednesday flooded the Old Port of Marseille and the city's main courthouse and cooked the closure of nearby beaches.

As scattered storms swept across Belgium on Wednesday, one flooded parts of the historic town of Ghent behind weeks of unrelenting drought.

London and novel parts of southern England were lashed with torrential rain and thunderstorms when one of the driest summers on record which gave the republic its first-ever 40 C temperature last month.

There was widespread fleet flooding as the downpours fell on parched ground.

Despite the rain, much of Britain is tranquil officially in drought. Thames Water, which supplies 15 million country in and around London, says a ban on watering lawns and gardens will take enact Aug. 24.

Much of Western Europe has recognized a season of extreme weather that scientists link to human-made weather change.

The dramatic downpours put an end to weeks of historic heat that left much of France parched, rivers dry and dozens of villages without running water.

Across much of Europe this summer, a series of heat waves has compounded a indispensable drought, creating prime wildfire conditions.

Rainfall in recent days has delight in the burden on firefighters facing France's worst fire season in the past decade, though emergency authorities said scattered wildfires continued to burn Wednesday in southwest France.