If Summer travel is taking you to Portugal this weekend, you’ll arrive in the middle of a heat wave.

The highest temperature recorded Thursday was 45.2 degrees celcius, near Abrantes, which is about 150 kilometres northeast of the capital Lisbon.

Temperatures in Portugal are forecast to keep building Friday, to around 45 degrees, and peaking at 47 degrees in some places on Saturday.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Portugal was 47.4 degrees in 2003.

Meteorologists say temperatures are being driven higher by a hot air mass moving northward from Africa, which is also bringing dust from the Sahara Desert.