Highs soar above 100 in Europe, smash records
PARIS — A historic heat wave inflicted life-threatening temperatures on Europe and shattered records for alltime highs in northern Europe on Thursday.
Thermometers in Paris registered a jawdropping 108.7 degrees, according to Météofrance, the national weather service, breaking the record of 104.7 degrees set in 1947.
Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands all saw national records on Thursday, beating highs set just the day before. The Netherlands exceeded 104 degrees for the first time in recorded history.
Britain came just shy of its record. The Met Office in Cambridge measured 100.6 degrees in Cambridge on Thursday, only the second time on record that Britain has topped triple digits. London experienced its hottest July day ever recorded: 98.2 degrees.
Those temperatures might not seem shocking by the standards of many regions in the United States, but in Europe, where air-conditioning is relatively uncommon, they can be deadly.
“No one is safe in such temperatures,” said Agnès Buzyn, The 108.7-degree heat in Paris on Thursday drives people to the fountains of the Trocadero gardens across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, seen in the background.
France’s health minister. “This is the first time that this affects departments in the north of the country ... populations that are not accustomed to such heat.”
The heat wave has been caused by a massive area of high pressure extending into the upper atmosphere, also known as a heat dome, that has temporarily rerouted the typical flow of the jet stream and allowed hot air from Africa to surge northward.
This system is set to migrate further north by the weekend, parking itself over Scandinavia and possibly breaking records in Norway and Sweden before making a run at the Arctic, where it could accelerate the melting of already-anemic sea ice.
In France, Elisabeth Borne, the minister of
sustainable development, urged citizens to cancel or postpone all unnecessary travel. The SNCF, France’s stateowned railway company, allowed customers to exchange or cancel free of charge any Thursday travel to the country’s 20 northern regions particularly affected.
Although this is high tourist season, major attractions such as the Place de la Concorde and Luxembourg Gardens were eerily deserted. People piled into movie theaters — in some cases for films they didn’t especially want to see — to enjoy air conditioning.
In much of Europe, air-conditioning has been seen as a luxury, and even an Americanstyle indulgence. But that might be shifting as episodes of punishing heat become the new normal.