A man drinks Tuesday outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Kin Cheung/AP hide caption toggle caption Kin Cheung/AP LONDON — The United Kingdom smashed a century-old temperature record for the second time in 24 hours on Tuesday as a spring heat wave continued to scorch parts of Western Europe, triggering government warnings about risks to life. Several drownings were reported in Britain and France as people tried to cool down. A temperature of 95.2 Fahrenheit was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens, Britain’s Met Office weather service said, breaking the 94.6-degree record set a day earlier at Kew. The provisional readings smashed the long-standing record of 91.4 degrees set in 1922 and matched in 1944. London also recorded a rare “tropical night,” defined as one in which the temperature does not fall below 68. Records also fell in France, where temperatures reached 97 on Monday in the country’s southwest and widely remained above 68 at night. The national weather service, Météo-France, said a “heat dome,” with heat held in place by a high-pressure weather front, …