French Toast: Temperatures Surge as Historic Heat Wave Hits Western Europe

[Agschmid]

[center][/center]

Two women sunbathe on the grass in a park in Saint-Cloud, west of Paris, on July 1, 2015—the second hottest day in Paris history.

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The temperature hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Paris on Wednesday. And then it kept rising.

The official high was 103.5 degrees, just short of the hottest day ever recorded in the French capital. Electricity fluctuations caused by the excessive temperatures briefly blacked out power for 830,000 households on Tuesday night. Near France’s Atlantic coast in the southwestern part of the country, the Guardian reports temperatures rose as high as 108 degrees on Tuesday. I wasn’t able to independently confirm that figure, though short-term weather models did show that such a high temperature—more typical of California’s Death Valley at this time of year—was expected.

“But it’s summer,” you say. Yes, but this isn’t normal. The weather site MeteoFrance called for “special vigilance”—warning that the current heat wave could top out above the one in July 2006, arguably the hottest in the nation’s history.

The "misery index", an indication of how hot it feels outside that factors in both temperature and humidity, was well above normal across much of Western Europe on Wednesday. Another heat wave in August 2003, centered in France, was the deadliest in world history—more than 70,000 people died across Europe that month. It was also the most intense European heat wave in terms of temperatures in at least 500 years. Although air conditioning is still relatively rare across most of Europe, a repeat of 2003 isn’t likely, even if the temperatures this week turn out to be hotter. France instituted strict heat wave guidelines after the 2003 disaster that are widely credited with a significant reduction in mortality during a 2006 heat wave. That emergency plan, which includes making daily phone calls to hundreds of thousands of especially vulnerable people, is in place again this week.

See the heat map and more here.

[lpbk2713]

1. I wonder if the message has started to sink in yet?

[Agschmid]

2. You'd think.

I'm 30 and every year... I keep hearing this is the worst weather year in a long time. It's bad.

[villager]

3. Nah, not with this species.

At least, not with the American strain of that species.

[Warpy]

6. Yes, in France and most of Europe and Asia

and even South America. No in the US. Pigheaded oil men and other fossil fuel barons are spending millions to make sure to balance warnings with a bunch of propaganda assuring people that their gas hog cars and inefficient heating and cooling systems are A-OK.

Since the old and young will be dying of the heat there and not here, it still won't sink in to the average US person who thinks broadcast TV news is keeping him informed.

Heat waves are especially deadly in Europe because their historically mild summers mean that not everyone has fans and fewer still have AC.

[dembotoz]

4. As long as a GOP nutjob senator can bring a snowball on the Senate floor nothing will change

[hatrack]

5. Two fearless predictions:

One, it's going to get a lot worse, and in fairly short order, and not in a linear manner.

Two, nothing will ever, Ever, EVER, EVER penetrate the tungsten and carbon-fiber Reality Armor worn by GOP politicians and voters.

Oh, they might someday maybe possibly admit there's a problem when most of Miami Beach can't pump itself dry any more, or when the summer Arctic Ocean ice goes.

Doing anything about it? Don't make me fucking laugh.

[hatrack]

7. Why Do They Hate Us? Well, Maybe The Washington Post Can Supply An Answer

This was a nauseating unsigned editorial from 2003 - more then 3,200 French citizens, most elderly and poor, died the last time a heatwave like this hit. BTW the WP link to the editorial doesn't work - surprise, surprise.

MWO today urges their readers to write the ombudsman of the Washington Post in response to yesterday's editorial 'Can't Stand the Heat?' which made mockery of Europe's suffering under the current heat wave. From the WP piece:

"TO LISTEN TO THE FUSS Europeans are making about their weather, anyone would think that it was actually hot over there" [...] "Okay, so maybe it's a bit warmer than usual. Temperatures across the continent have shot up into the 90s and once or twice have topped 100 degrees in London and Paris. But is this really hot -- hot enough to close businesses, hot enough to cancel trains (the tracks might buckle), hot enough to wax nostalgic for the summer rain to which some Europeans, notably residents of the British Isles, are more accustomed?

Last time we checked, the weather here in Washington was in the upper 80s, which is average to low for this time of year. Temperatures in Houston and Dallas in the past couple of days have topped 100, as they usually do in summer. Yet somehow, no one's talking about extraordinary measures being taken by Texans or Washingtonians. On the contrary, President Bush, who qualifies as both, by some measures, is currently mocking the press corps by pretending to enjoy jogging in the Texas heat. Not all Europeans may want to go this far -- but maybe they will now at least stop turning up their noses at those American summer inventions they've long loved to mock: The office window that doesn't open, the air conditioner that produces sub-arctic temperatures and the tall glass of water, served in a restaurant, filled to the brim with ice."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55850-2003Aug13.html

As MWO points out, in France alone, over 3200 people, mostly elderly, have died in this extraordinary heat wave thus far. And as an American expatriate in France points out in a letter MWO posts, most of that country (and of the other European nations affected) lies far north of even Washington, DC, let alone Texas, and the reason they don't rely on AC the way we do is because they usually have highs this time of year in the '70's, rather than around 100 for weeks on end.

Here's my letter to the WP ombudsman:

As lousy as the Washington Post editorial page has become in the last year or so, I wouldn't have expected to see you print this supercilious and ignorant putdown of people facing a disastrous heat wave which has claimed thousands of lives thus far.

We all know that, following the refusal of certain European governments to go along with the Bush administration's designs on Iraq, the people of Europe, and in particular the French, have become favorite objects of abuse for rightwing zealots in this country, the like of which you hear on talk radio shows. This, of course, is in spite of the fact that France is a longtime ally of the United States, and that the French population responded with an outpouring of sympathy and support on the occasion of the 9/11 attacks on the USA.

That the editoral staff of one of America's major newspapers has descended to the level of trashy, inflammatory rhetoric offered by Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy is a disgrace not only to American journalism, but to our country itself. An apology won't suffice -- the persons responsible for this piece should be fired.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/215494/thread/1060958507/WP+Mocks+Heat+Wave+in+Europe+--+Death+Toll+Over+3200+Thus+Far+in+France+Alone