Jellyfish stings, Comino cliff jumping injuries and barbeque bellies might not be the worst dangers of the summer, according to one doctor who claims to be treating more people with heatstroke than previous years.

“Many people are getting sun burnt, that’s always true, but I don’t think I’ve ever treated this many people with heat illness before; people should be careful,” Dr Jonathan Chetcuti said.

A general practitioner, Dr Chetcuti warned that pro-longed exposure to high temperatures could have serious health implications.

I think all those who said we wouldn’t be having a summer are definitely eating their words now

Heat illness is a spectrum of heat related ailments ranging from minor symptoms such as heat cramps to heat syncope (fainting as a result of overheating), heat exhaustion and heatstroke when the body temperature rises to above 40 degrees.

Dr Chetcuti said the high temperatures could affect anybody but some ran a greater risk of harm, such as older people, babies and young children,people with chronic conditions and physically active people. Today’s temperatures should soar to over 35˚C and the blistering weather is expected to persist throughout the rest of the week with the mercury finally dropping after Friday.

A Meteorological Office spokesman said despite relatively high temperatures, it did not constitute a heat wave.

“This is slightly higher than normal, but it is still not a heat wave. I think all those who said we wouldn’t be having a summer are definitely eating their words now,” the spokesman said.

A French weather website in June claimed there was a 70 per cent chance Europe would have no summer.

It forecast that this year would go down in European history as the summer season that was replaced with cold weather and rain. Beach lifeguard Vincent Carabez said he spent the bulk of his days walking up and down several of Malta’s beaches informing people of the dangers of dehydration and excessive heat exposure.

“I’ve seen more people than I care to remember who were sunburnt and severely dehydrated, I don’t understand why they do that to themselves, the sun is dangerous,” Mr Carabez said. Some, however, welcome the higher temperatures. Scotts Supermarket managing director Mario Said said he had seen a growth of as much as 10 per cent on sales of ice cream, sun creams and disposable barbeques in the past few weeks compared to the same period last year.

“Obviously, you can’t pin this on the sun but summer business is doing very well,” he said.