The hot air that smashed European weather records this week looks set to move towards Greenland, a worrying development that may take Greenland's ice sheet close to or below the record low seen in 2012, the U.N. said on Friday.

Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said the hot air moving up from North Africa had not merely broken European temperature records on Thursday but surpassed them by 2, 3 or 4 degrees Celsius, which she described as "absolutely incredible."

National records set in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, as well as a city record in Paris. Germany recorded its highest temperature ever at 42.6 degrees Celsius in the town of Lingen in the northwest state of Lower Saxony, the German weather service (DWD) said, citing preliminary data. Belgium also measured a new all-time national record of 40.7 degrees in the small western village of Beitem, meteorologist David Dehenauw tweeted.

The Netherlands passed the 40-degree mark for the first time since records began, with a temperature of 40.7 degrees recorded in Gilze-Rijen in the southern province of North Brabant, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute said. Paris saw the mercury hit 42.6 degrees, national weather service Meteo France said, the highest temperature ever recorded in the French capital. The previous high of 40.4 degrees dated back to 1947.