'Potentially Dangerous' Heatwave Set To Strike Europe

[appalachiablue]

Source: France24

Intense heat is forecast across much of Continental Europe over the coming days. Temperatures are expected to peak at close to 40°C on Thursday in Paris. And it is unclear how long this heatwave will last.

June is typically a month of gentle warmth in Europe, marking the beginning of summer. However, this year’s June has been anything but gentle. There have been turbulent storms, floods, giant hailstone showers and lightning – and sometimes all during the same day. And now the thermometer is set to dramatically shoot up with an abnormally early heatwave forecast for next week.

This unexpected heatwave has been caused by "a storm stalling over the Atlantic Ocean and high pressure over central and eastern Europe", according to international weather site AccuWeather. These conditions will bring very hot air from Africa northwards across Europe. Accuweather says this will set the stage for “a potentially dangerous heatwave to occur over a large portion of western and central Europe”.

Cities including Madrid, Paris, Belgium, Frankfurt and Berlin can expect a persistent heatwave, with daily temperatures near or above 32°C for at least the next six days. Nights are not expected to be much cooler. Temperatures could approach – or even exceed – 38°C in the hottest locations on Wednesday and Thursday. -MORE...


Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/20190623-france-paris-heatwave-europe-weather-hidalgo-buzyn-library-museum-swimming-pool

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France’s health minister warned local authorities, hospitals and retirement homes to be on high alert, noting that last summer’s heatwave resulted in 1,500 more deaths than normal in July and August. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo activated a level-3 heatwave action plan on Sunday for the more extreme days. This is particularly severe given that there are just 4 levels and level- 4 has never been used.

READ MORE: Paris Prepares Pools, Parks and 'Cooling Rooms' for Predicted Heat Wave, The Guardian, June 23, 2019.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/23/paris-prepares-pools-parks-and-cool-rooms-for-predicted-heatwave



Paris canal swimming pool.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Our German friend, who lives in Muenster, said the prediction there is for 104 degrees Fahrenheit

People who spurned air conditioning are buying it now -- which of course exacerbates the problem in the long term.

[appalachiablue]

2. 104, horrible, Germany or anywhere. The planet can't handle

us and our waste. In summer 2003 we followed reports of the heat horror in France especially, with bodies stacked up in morgues without refrigeration. Finally we departed in late August for No. France and luckily just missed the worst.

[former9thward]

10. I lived in the Phoenix area for 11 years

For months at a time the temperature routinely reaches above 110 and above. It was not horrible. People go about their business and do not drop dead. It is only uncomfortable if you are not used to it.

[appalachiablue]

11. Tell me, so you've lived in DC when the temperature is 90-100

degrees and the humidity is very high. In a large, urban metro area, population 5 million, where people w/o a/c try to locate to community centers, malls and city buses to escape the heat if they can. Provided the power isn't knocked out and the air is functioning.

[NickB79]

13. At high enough humidity, anything over 100F becomes lethal

And such lethal wet bulb temps are predicted to explode in the coming decades.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/the-deadly-combination-of-heat-and-humidity.html

Russia's 2010 heatwave killed 15,000; the one in France in 2003 killed 50,000.

https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/over-15000-likely-dead-in-russian-heat-wave-asian-monsoon-floods-kil.html

[JudyM]

14. Humidity makes all the difference.

In dry heat our sweat evaporates, cooling us.

[RobinA]

34. It Really Does

I'm from the Philadelphia suburbs where it's rarely hot without being humid. I've come to hate the heat since I reached middle age. I was in Arizona 4 years ago and was hiking around sight seeing in the parks and I saw a thermometer or something and in was 87. I was surprised, because I was quite comfortable and would have said it was in the low 70s based on my comfort level.

[JudyM]

41. I'm from the northeast coast and was as struck by that dry heat concept as much as I was struck by

my first trip south when I was able to go into the ocean in May

[GulfCoast66]

16. Yeah, and every building you go into is cooled to 75 degrees.

Including the homes people live in.

You been to Europe? There is pretty much no AC. Trying sleeping in a flat in crowded Paris or Munich when there is no AC, no breeze and lows in the 80s.

I have and it sucks. And I am healthy and live in Florida where I work and recreate in the outdoors all summer long. We keep our thermostat at 78 which most consider too warm. Hell, I like the heat.

But the worst nights of my life were spent in Paris during a heat wave.

I do not travel there in the summer anymore.

[Turin_C3PO]

25. Yeah, Europe is bad in the summer.

I’m not sure why they shun air conditioning? I guess it’s hard to build it into the old buildings. You talk to natives and many hate the idea of air conditioning. I don’t get it.

[RobinA]

33. They Don't NEED

air conditioning, doncha know. They are adamant that they don't.need.air.conditioning.

I was in Scotland two years ago during a June heat wave in the UK, where they also don't.need.air.conditioning and broiled in my Edinburgh hotel room. They were all out of fans, but eventually went and got more to blow around the hot air. It was better than nothing. I get it, civilization has gotten where it is without air conditioning, but I think back in the 1500s it was somewhat less unacceptable to have a percentage of the population dropping dead from the heat.

[hatrack]

17. Phoenix - AC; Paris, Brussels, Bonn, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw, Marseilles - No

And at least 35,000 people died in western Europe in 2003 in the last big heat wave:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4259-european-heatwave-caused-35000-deaths/

[Boomer]

20. Did you live there without AC?

I grew up in central Texas, with heat that was known to go over 100 degrees, but everyone had air-conditioning.

[former9thward]

21. I didn't but Phoenix has been around for awile.

So has central Texas. A/C for residential area just began in the 1950s. People lived in both areas before that.

[jberryhill]

26. ...with appropriate architecture

Of course, passive cooling systems were incorporated into the way that buildings were constructed, unlike the existing European infrastructure.

Evaporative cooling - even via perspiration - goes a long way in arid hot climates.

[LanternWaste]

31. Not too familiar with the changes in census that took place after the advent of A/C?

Pretty dramatic changes.

"I sure you can find "exceptions to the rule" for anything..."

[Turin_C3PO]

24. Phoenix is different.

It’s not humid there and humidity makes all the difference. I know because I’ve lived in Phoenix and traveled to many places with 100+ temps and high humidity. It’s not comparable.

[BuddhaGirl]

27. And there is A/C everywhere

Not so in Europe. Have you never been there?

Sorry, but your post is just silly.

[LanternWaste]

30. Horrible is relative, yes?

You really have no way of answering whether it's horrible or not for anyone other than yourself.

I've lived in north TX since 1974... summers are uncomfortable as it routinely reaches 105 and above, though I'm used to it (another fine distinction lacking relevant difference to follow soon, yes...?).

[Merlot]

32. Phoenix doesn't have the humidity, overcrowding or air pollution of those cities

[Retrograde]

37. "But it's a dry heat"

And Phoenix is, after all, in the middle of a desert. I've been there in the summer for meetings, and early mornings and evenings can be quite pleasant. What really bothers me, though, is the attempts to air-condition the outsides with all those misters.

[former9thward]

40. Agree with you there.

I sat in the outside seating areas of bars because I enjoyed the evening warmth --- and the better conversational people were outside smoking and drinking. But the misters were really annoying.

[GulfCoast66]

19. In France that is not true.

Most of their power is nuclear with renewables beating fossil fuels.

Their electricity generation does not produce much greenhouse gas.

Of course, I know nothing about any European wide power grid, so they may well be consuming power from other nations.

[former9thward]

22. "Most of their power is nuclear"

Many here don't want to hear that... Even though that is the only practical alternative to oil based fuel.

[Maxheader]

35. Killer heat...

2010 through 2012 and early 2013 in kansaas was devastating for the elderly..

[Ohiogal]

3. Do many homes and buildings in Paris have air conditioning?

[appalachiablue]

5. Gute frage, I doubt it, but don't know for sure. It was never

a need for us, so far over several trips. But in England a/c isn't standard I'm almost certain. Years ago there I heard people on a train from Cambridge to London discussing a 'heatwave' and thought, what are they talking about? It was maybe in the low-mid 80s. Later that day while in the British Museum looking at Egyptian mummies in cases I became bit dizzy. People were so worried but I was ok once I sat down-- I told them it was the bodies, not the 'heat'! LOL

Over the last 10-15 years I've seen many people saying how Europe will need to put in major a/c all over.

[elfin]

8. I don't think so - Europe in general hasn't put it in so many OLD buildings

Add to that very few elevators makes the elderly in 4 or 5 flight walkups especially vulnerable in heat waves.

[GulfCoast66]

18. Pretty much none.

I’ve been to Europe twice during heat waves. You just can’t escape the heat. And unlike we Floridians they are not used to it at all.

Even in Florida most people just don’t go out much in the summer. As a southerner I actually like the heat. But I now only go to Europe in the fall or spring. 95 in Paris is deadly. No AC, no breeze and humid as all get out.

[marybourg]

4. Meanwhile, here in the PHX, AZ metro,

we're having the most temperate spring any of us remember. May was like April and so far June has been like an average May.

[defacto7]

6. Same here in Utah.

[ananda]

7. That's around 104 F

Pretty damm hot. We've have had days like that here.
I guess I'm fairly acclimated to heat, but a lot of
people aren't.

I'd say get used to it. It's going to be the new normal...
but maybe we need our fantasies and denialism.

[mcar]

9. Not good for World Cup contenders

[YOHABLO]

12. Scotland looks like it will be really nice however. That's where I'd go.

[Duppers]

15. Coincidence that you would say that. My son just boarded....

a flight for Scotland! He and a friend plan to hike Scotland's western coast for the next two weeks.

[LittleGirl]

23. This week will be awful

I live in northern Switzerland and we've had a very cool and wet spring. Honestly, we had one day of sunshine per 10 days lately and we're talking since April 1st. April and May and most of June were cooler than February and March in these parts. It was so nice in February and March that it was like spring. Then spring showed up, the clouds came and never let up. Showers and thunderstorms and overflowing rivers like the Rhone and the Rhine.

It was 59 degrees when I woke up on Sunday and it was foggy. We got sunny and beautiful at about 80 degrees in the afternoon. But you have to understand, the only place that has air conditioning is grocery stores and that is really a requirement to keep food fresh. Office, shops and restaurants do not have air conditioning and most hotels will give you a fan unless it was upgraded in the past 20 yrs.

I lived in Phoenix and Tucson so I know what heat is - especially dry heat. It's different here when it hits 100 degrees because the humidity is so thick. I will take Arizona heat over this any day because you can escape the heat by going inside. Not here.

And no, we do not have air conditioning in our home. We do have one window air conditioner but I haven't put it in yet because like I said, it's been cold and rainy since April. Our home was built in 81. We do have a lower level with a guest room and if it gets unbearable, we will sleep down there.

My spouse's (work) building has water cooled air but no air conditioning like what you're used to in the states.

[jberryhill]

28. Odd that the Sustenpass stayed closed last week

Although getting another climb over the San Gottardo and adding Furkapass in the Tour de Suisse on Sunday was a bonus.

[LittleGirl]

29. There were many places on the east of Switzerland that

had massive flooding from downpours and hail. I don't know about the Tour de Suisse as I haven't been following that.

[Thyla]

36. Forecast is quite pleasant in our part of Spain.

Pool should be ready by then too. Yay summer.

[Scurrilous]

38. It was 95 out a few hours ago here in Miami...now it's only 93.

[GoneOffShore]

39. Presently in Aix-en-Provence - 26C and 43% humidity at 22h.

The ceiling fans are going, there's one other fan, and the windows are open(having to kill some mosquitoes, but fewer than we had in Philadelphia) with a bit of north to south breeze.
Tomorrow is going to be hot - 38C. Hotter on Wednesday at 39C. Friday is predicted at 41C.
Next week should be better. I hope.
Lots of water, ice cubes in the rosé, linen shirts, espadrilles, and straw hats. And plenty of sunscreen.