Extreme heat map of France depicts eerie 'screaming' skull

Europe is bearing witness to record-breaking temperatures as an extreme and dangerous heat wave grips parts of the continent.

As Europeans scramble to deal with the suffocating temperatures, French meteorologist Ruben Hallali discovered one photo that nicely sums up the way many are feeling about the weather pattern.

A forecast map published on website Météociel that predicted temperatures across France on June 27 seems to resemble the image of a screaming skull.

Hallali took to Twitter to share the eerie image alongside a photo of Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.

"Never seen that in the 15 years I've been looking at weather maps," he wrote.

Sylvain Dupont, a spokesman for Météociel, told CNN this particular map was generated using real data created by the U.S. predictive Global Forecast System.

However, Dupont noted that the menacing figure seemingly featured in the prediction appeared entirely by coincidence.

"By chance, it just happened to be possible to imagine a special form of a skull in this map," he told the outlet. "There are so many maps created on our site for each updated forecast that it is statistically possible for some to look like something."

Amid this week's sweltering temperatures, authorities in France and other European nations have announced multiple school closures and traffic restrictions, Reuters reports.

Officials in Paris also extended operating hours for swimming pools and parks throughout the capital city to curb the effects of the deadly heat, which may surpass 38°C (100°F) on Thursday, according to AccuWeather.

Euronews reports that during a similar 2003 heat wave, where temperatures rose as high as 40°C in some parts of Europe, at least 30,000 people died across the continent, with 14,000 deaths reported in France alone.