Sizzling summer heat is set to scorch Toronto this week, and temperatures are expected to feel as hot as 41 C by the close of the workweek.

The latest weekly forecast from The Weather Network calls for steadily-increasing temperatures over the next few days, with highs in the high 20s to low 30s, but humidex factors making it feel much, much hotter.

Wednesday is forecast to reach a high of 30 C, with a humidex value pushing the perceived temperature up to a tropical 37 C. Thursday's high of 28 C will come with an even higher humidex factor of 39 C, though there may be some relief as the day comes with an 80 per cent chance of showers.

Friday will top the charts, however, with an already-searing high of 31 C and the humidex factor making it feel a full ten degrees hotter, at an almost unfathomable 41 C.

A 40 per cent chance of thunderstorms could provide some respite from the heat on Friday, but it is still shaping up to be an absolute scorcher.

The oppressive heat is expected to break by Saturday, with a high of 25 C and a humidex value of 31 C accompanied by an 80 per cent chance of light rain.

This week's heat forecast comes amid a summer of similar weather extremes in Canada and across the globe. Canada's Maritime provinces are currently reeling from disastrous floods, and wildfires are spreading at an unprecedented rate across the country.

Across the Atlantic, it's more of the same, with southern Europe basically on fire right now as extreme heat plagues much of the continent.

Heat waves around the world are being described as "unprecedented," and were in no uncertain terms attributed to human causes in a new report from World Weather.