was a normal Thursday morning for the Ali Mehenni family or so Kamel Ali Mehenni thought when he dropped off his 17-year-old daughter Sahra at the train station on her way to school when Sahra failed to meet her father at the station plump-cheeked teenager with a soft smile might have missed her train or gone out with friends from Lézignan-Corbières in a wine-producing region of southern France she took a train to a nearby airport and flew alone to Turkey— to join ISIS jihadists on the warfront in Syria How a quiet young French woman from a mixed Muslim-Catholic family with five children was convinced to exchange her home in the south of France to one in the north of Syria remains a mystery to her family and friends “It is a catastrophe,” says her brother Jonathan sitting in his apartment in Margny-lès-Compiègne as he reads the private messages Sahra has written from Syria to her “beloved” sibling “There is not a day that goes by when my parents don’t cry ‘Sahra “They watch the news from Syria and it is so surreal.” ISIS has persuaded hundreds of young Western women to travel to Syria That marks its battle as distinctly different from al-Qaeda’s campaigns of the last decade and demonstrates that ISIS seeks to colonize the areas it has conquered with its soldiers civil servants and women to breed a new generation of fighters In al-Qaeda’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq young armed men holed up on the battlefield far from their families But in Syria ISIS aims to install a purist Islamic state—an entire new country—as its name denotes And so ISIS fighters are looking to build lives that are far broader than fighting the war ones in which they can come home after a day’s battle to a loving wife and children recruiting women into ISIS is not simply about expanding the organization It is the essential building block of a future society ISIS members have said their women do not fight but are there to help build the new society “The strategy is geared to building a community and bringing families in so they have the infrastructure to set up a society,” says Melanie Smith research associate at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at Kings College London who has tracked dozens of British women who have joined ISIS “They are the support system.” A new ISIS-affiliated online group named “Al-Zawra’a Foundation” launched last month advising Western women not only to watch training videos on handling weapons but also to have their mothers teach them recipes and tailoring skills so they can cook for ISIS fighters and sew their combat uniforms “May Allah be pleased with the female companion,” says the Al-Zawra’a’s recruiting pitch describing women’s lives in ISIS as teaching others first aid “until Allah chooses you for martyrdom.” Anti-terrorism officials in Europe estimate about 300 Western women have joined jihadist groups in Syria That might be because the largest number of foreign fighters in ISIS are believed to come from French-speaking Tunisia many of them hardline militants who were freed from prisons after the Jasmine Revolution drove out the country’s secular dictator in January 2011 Those men moved on to Syria and from there have sought French-speaking wives was sentenced to seven years for having briefly traveled to Syria to join ISIS Sahra called her brother Jonathan to tell him she had married a Tunisian fighter deepening the family’s sense that she had slipped into a dark world far beyond their reach Sahra seems anxious for her parents’ approval strongly,” she wrote soon after arriving in Syria I know the last time I heard her voice she was trembling Sahra’s messages have begun to feel hollow to Jonathan “It’s always the same: I’m eating okay To the family Sahra’s life is abhorrant Sahra’s mother is a French-born Catholic who married an Algerian-born Muslim “For her we are non-believers,” Jonathan says referring to the macabre footage on television of ISIS beheadings Jonathan knows few details of Sahra’s ISIS life fighter jets pound ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria Sahra’s messages have become increasingly frantic with her apologizing that she has only sporadic communications—a signal On November 2 Jonathan’s phone beeped with a new Facebook message he had waited weeks to read “The connection is very weak,” Sahra wrote “I hope you are well and that work is very good,” she went on then scrambled to finish without punctuation “I’m sorry I’m hurrying I’ll be quick all okay except for the planes.” Contact us at letters@time.com A heat wave has set new all-time June record highs in eight European nations and an all-time record high in France An all-time record high was preliminarily smashed in France on Friday when a temperature of 114.6 degrees Fahrenheit was reported in Gallargues-le-Montueux, in southern France. In addition, at least 12 stations saw temperatures higher than the previous national record on Friday The previous all-time record high for any month was 111.4 degrees (MORE: Heat Wave Kills Several in France, Italy, Spain) This also marked the first time the 45 degree Celsius threshold (113 degrees F) was reached in France according to Meteo France and is the hottest day ever measured in June for the country France had set a new all-time June record high on Thursday, when Grospierres recorded a high of 108.1 degrees. Previously, the highest fully reliable June temperature in France was 106.7 degrees at Lezignan-Corbieres on June 21, 2003, according to Etienne Kapikian One French station with a long-term climate record set a new all-time record high for any month at 105.6 degrees Many individual cities in France broke June record highs once again on Saturday, according to Kapikian The heat was so intense some French vineyards reported vines scorched by the heat Several other countries set all-time June record highs from Wednesday through Sunday (June 26-30) -Poland: 100.8 degrees at Radzyń; tied previous record of 100.8 degrees in Wroclaw in June 1935 -Czech Republic: 101.3 degrees at Doksany; previous record 100.8 degrees at Brno in June 2000 -Germany: 103.3 degrees at Bernburg / Saale, Sunday, topping a 101.5 degree high at Coschen set last Wednesday; previous record 101.3 degrees in June 1947. Fifty-one individual German reporting stations set new June heat records Wednesday -Luxembourg: 98.2 degrees at Petange; previous record 97 degrees on June 22 -Principality of Andorra: 100 degrees at Borda Vidal; previous record 96.8 degrees in June 1935 -Switzerland: 98.6 degrees at Sion on Sunday set a new June record -Liechtenstein: All-time June record high of 98.8 degrees set at Balzers on Sunday Germany had its hottest June day on record Wednesday. The German weather service reported that 204 of its 451 active stations broke or tied their June record highs, German meteorologist Michael Theusner said in an email to Dr. Jeff Masters senior meteorologist at Weather Underground Eleven of those stations broke or tied their all-time record high for any month The hottest temperature measured in Germany on Wednesday was 101.5 degrees at Coschen (Brandenburg) and Bad Muskau (Saxony) Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, where weather records extend back to 1900, recorded its all-time warmest low temperature for any time of year Wednesday morning at 54 degrees We recognize our responsibility to use data and technology for good We may use or share your data with our data vendors The Weather Channel is the world's most accurate forecaster according to ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview An all-time record high was preliminarily smashed in France on Friday when a temperature of 114.6 degrees Fahrenheit was reported in Gallargues-le-Montueux, in southern France. In addition, at least 12 stations saw temperatures higher than the previous national record on Friday (MORE: Heat Wave Kills Several in France, Italy, Spain) This also marked the first time the 45 degree Celsius threshold (113 degrees F) was reached in France France had set a new all-time June record high on Thursday, when Grospierres recorded a high of 108.1 degrees. Previously, the highest fully reliable June temperature in France was 106.7 degrees at Lezignan-Corbieres on June 21, 2003, according to Etienne Kapikian a meteorologist at Météo-France Many individual cities in France broke June record highs once again on Saturday, according to Kapikian -Poland: 100.8 degrees at Radzyń; tied previous record of 100.8 degrees in Wroclaw in June 1935 -Czech Republic: 101.3 degrees at Doksany; previous record 100.8 degrees at Brno in June 2000 -Germany: 103.3 degrees at Bernburg / Saale, Sunday, topping a 101.5 degree high at Coschen set last Wednesday; previous record 101.3 degrees in June 1947. Fifty-one individual German reporting stations set new June heat records Wednesday -Luxembourg: 98.2 degrees at Petange; previous record 97 degrees on June 22 -Principality of Andorra: 100 degrees at Borda Vidal; previous record 96.8 degrees in June 1935 -Switzerland: 98.6 degrees at Sion on Sunday set a new June record -Liechtenstein: All-time June record high of 98.8 degrees set at Balzers on Sunday Germany had its hottest June day on record Wednesday. The German weather service reported that 204 of its 451 active stations broke or tied their June record highs, German meteorologist Michael Theusner said in an email to Dr. Jeff Masters The hottest temperature measured in Germany on Wednesday was 101.5 degrees at Coschen (Brandenburg) and Bad Muskau (Saxony) Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, where weather records extend back to 1900, recorded its all-time warmest low temperature for any time of year Wednesday morning at 54 degrees Dr. Jeff Masters  ·  June 25 A ferociously hot airmass from the Sahara Desert has moved northward into Western Europe and will bring a dangerous heat wave unprecedented for June for the remainder of the week All-time national heat records for June are likely to fall in multiple countries and some nations may challenge all-time heat records set during the great heat wave of 2003 As of 11 am EDT Tuesday, Carpentras, France had recorded a high temperature of 38.4°C (101.1°F). This falls 3°C short of the highest fully reliable June temperature in France of 41.5°C (106.7°F) on June 21, 2003 at Lézignan-Corbières, according to Etienne Kapikian (Météo-France) Other June readings as high as 42.2°C are less reliable The June heat record for France is likely to fall on Wednesday or Thursday in southern portions of the nation Wildfire danger is predicted to steadily increase during week, reaching the “Extreme” level by the weekend over portions of France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, according the Copernicus Emergency Management Service The European Union is already well above recent norms for hectares burned & number of fires ignited in 2019 Another aspect to watch as the #Europe heatwave unfolds this week is the wildfire risk. The European Union is already well above recent norms for hectares burned & number of fires ignited YTD. pic.twitter.com/EiUSFgidN6 Europe tends to get its hottest temperatures of the year later in the summer Some of these all-time June records are even more likely to tumble: The airmass (at 850 hPa) in France may be > 30°C this week. To get perspective how anomalous it is, here's ERA5 T850 maximum for any month and for June. Clearly an all-time record (at least for 41 years), and totally unheard of for June.#heatwave pic.twitter.com/YAhXExbUUO Heat waves are especially dangerous when they occur early in the summer, before people have had time to adapt to the seasonal heat. A 2015 report from the World Meteorological Organization and World Health Organization on heatwaves and health notes: “Heatwave timing appears to have a notable effect on the level of mortality Heatwaves occurring early in the summer have been shown to be associated with greater impacts on mortality in the same population than later heatwaves of comparable or higher temperatures (Hajat et al. The impact of high temperatures later in the summer is sometimes diminished after an early heatwave heatwaves occurring in June result in relatively high mortality compared to later in the summer while most high-mortality events in southern Asia appear to occur early in the summer before the summer monsoon." The hottest summers since 1500 AD in Europe were 2018 Europe’s deadliest heat-wave catastrophe occurred in the first two weeks of August 2003 Great Britain saw its first 100°F readings in more than 300 years of recordkeeping and all-time national heat records were also set in France According to statistics from EM-DAT, the 2003 European heat wave was the deadliest in world history, with over 70,000 deaths. Hardest-hit were Italy (20,089 deaths), France (19,490 deaths), and Spain (15,090 deaths). Below is the list of top ten deadliest heat waves in world history as compiled by EM-DAT (which uses direct deaths for their statistics and not excess mortality): The 10 Deadliest Heat Waves in World History1) Europe A landmark 2004 study led by Peter Stott (University of Reading) found that human-produced climate change made heat waves on par with the European disaster of 2003 about four times more likely to occur Data show that the normally eastward atmospheric summer circulation of the NH mid-latitudes has slowed down, including the jet stream. This favors more hot-and-dry conditions over the continent and is likely linked to Arctic warming. Coumou et al. 2015: https://t.co/wsQbn8l5VP pic.twitter.com/VqaIp3rNVS and thanks go to Maximiliano Herrera for providing European national weather records The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news the environment and the importance of science to our lives This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company Jeff Masters co-founded Weather Underground in 1995 while working on his Ph.D in air pollution meteorology at the University of Michigan He worked for the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990 as a flight meteorologist emailweatherman.masters@gmail.com © Copyright TWC Product and Technology LLC 2014