'Unprecedented' alerts in France as blistering heat grips Europe
bbc.comThankfully in Paris it doesn't look like we're going to get it as bad as was expected. It's "only" going to be 100f/38c today and 90f/32c tomorrow. Hot, but considering that just a few days ago my weather app predicted 107f/42c, it's welcome.
Still, it's hot. My daughter's school actually suggested parents keep their kids home today, as they aren't equipped for this heat.
> Still, it's hot. My daughter's school actually suggested parents keep their kids home today, as they aren't equipped for this heat.
Reminds me of when my colleague from Sri Lanka said that kids there will be sent home if the temperature drops below 16C. That’s a decent summers day in Scotland. We struggled to sleep last night after a sweltering 21C yesterday. I think I might burst into flames at 42C.
It is hard to explain to people who don't live in tropical countries, but 16C in Scotland means the sun is still up giving some radiating heat when it directly hits you or the building you are on. 16C in a tropical country means the sun is completely blocked and no direct heat coming towards you.
Think more like 16C at night feels colder than 16C during the day. The temperature in official thermometers is the overall air temperature in the shade which don't benefit from this overall radiating heat.
And of course humidity is also a huge part of how cold it feels. Which is why temperatures around 0C feel colder than -5C (because below zero the air humidity goes away).
> because below zero the air humidity goes away
You need much colder for this to happen. Google says:
Water vapor, even in freezing temperatures, doesn't instantly freeze into ice unless it comes into contact with a surface or the temperature drops extremely low (around -40°C).
I think what they meant is humidity is lower when freezing, not necessarily zero.
The relative humidity goes up when the temperature goes down. The water doesn't go anywhere, but the ability of the air to hold it drops, so the relative humidity rises until it hits 100% and water starts precipitating out.
The relative humidity of the air in winter at it's coldest point during a cycle is almost always 100% where I live.
How common is air conditioning in Paris? What proportion of homes have air conditioning, either built-in or portable? How about businesses? Does Paris have sufficient "cooling stations", as in, large, air conditioned, public-friendly businesses like malls or community centers?
Fairly uncommon in homes (although I wouldn't go as far as the sibling comment that it's only for very upscale homes—I know plenty of people who are getting equipped). Because the unit has to be outside, there are many historic buildings where you can't install AC. It's less of a problem in other parts of France.
Businesses open to the public and offices almost universally have AC, though, except maybe for mom and pop shops, so you definitely can go to the mall or the movies to get some fresh air.
Some offices are better than other when it comes up AC. My last regular office would turn the AC off for the entire floor if any windows were open. But then the meeting rooms would get stuffy, and people would open windows, so there effectively was no AC.
The best place to go during weather like this is actually a grocery store: Picard, which only sells frozen food and so you get the escaped chill from the freezers.
Not the answer I expected. From what I understand many homes in Germany have gotten air conditioning "for free" recently. They installed heat pumps due to incentives, which can run as air conditioners in the summer.
Most heat pumps in Germany are air to water which can't be used as air conditioner. Mainly, the existing plumbing is used.
Why wouldn't air/water be able to cool the air? It'd just output hot water instead of hot air
Because either they heat radiators or under floor. Radiators would condensate a lot of water so risk of mold. And underfloor can be used for cooling, but it needs more modern control for similar issues.
Paris has many historic buildings, but it’s not like the average Joe lives in any of those.
The trouble is if you just retrofit aircon with no other changes you actually increase the outside temperature, possibly by more than 2 degrees[0].
This has worried me since I was a child. If everyone has AC it's a race to the bottom as it gets warmer and warmer, AC has to work harder, using more and more energy etc. You end up with hellhole cities where you can't be outside at all. It's simply not sustainable. We have to do other things like having green spaces, less tarmac, shutters on windows etc.
[0] https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/08/30/fact-check-is-air-...
Oh that is interesting. A greek guy I know said to me that cities 'radiated heat' some years ago and I kinda didn't believe him.
Localised to alleyways etc the effect can probably be even worse.
The urban heat island effect isn't to do with AC specifically. It's a mix of tarmac absorbing heat during the day then re-radiating it at night, a higher population density and a higher density of machinery.
The night time re-radiation has the effect of bringing the min closer to the max readings, and so making it look as if temperatures are going up, even when max temps aren't changing much. The same effect can't be seen in rural places where there's less tarmac.
AC is an example of "more machinery", so it does contribute. But I would also argue that the redistribution of heat is itself harmful and AC is a horrible tragedy of the commons solution to the urban heat island problem.
Very uncommon / inexistant in private appartements except I guess if you live in a very very very upscale appartement.
Installing AC is actually not allowed in many places ( because of urbanism laws)
Only possible AC is those single hose mobile units which are wildly inefficient and close to useless while burning energy.
>Only possible AC is those single hose mobile units which are wildly inefficient and close to useless while burning energy.
FWIW at least in the US (and I can't imagine they wouldn't be available worldwide) there are also dual hose portable AC units which can perform fairly decently, at least far better than single hose. I needed to use one for awhile at an old office (I think it was a Whynter model) and it was effective. There are also more exotic portable units that use water as the fluid dump, but that requires having a sufficient water source that you can utilize, and probably isn't going to be doable in a residential unit in a city. We had a couple at the chemistry lab I worked in 10-15 years ago that hooked into the lab water lines.
In my experience most homes/apartments in Europe are stone/cement/brick and many were built before central heating/cooling was a thing. US homes being much newer, and built from wood, means getting air ducts in isn’t such a huge deal. So European homes often heat ultimately via hot water pipes (radiators, heated floors), etc but there isn’t a way to cool using the same mechanisms. Of course this is a huge generalization.
The more people install air conditioning the more energy we use, warming up the world even more, requiring even more AC units to be activated.
In terms of energy supply, air conditioning works pretty well with solar power. Normally hot days and sunny days are very correlated.
If you are worried about the local heat generated by the air conditioners themselves, there are new coatings and panels that can radiate that heat directly to space, for example https://www.skycoolsystems.com/. Also just removing a few parking spaces and replacing them with green space can help at a city wide level.
Yep, in an ideal world solar makes it not so bad and we're transitioning there. But my country (the Netherlands) is still about 50% powered by dirty sources and the energy transition is happening too slowly to avert the climate crisis, so let's not wave it away with solar promises.
That's also only the operation of the things, their production and transport involves global chains of mining, shipping etc. and all the solar panels would be the same on top of that
Energy used in private AC is very small fraction of total bill and has no meaningful effect on the climate.
Compare with data centers running entirely off grid, powered by tens of massive gas generators.
You're looking at the figures today, not the figures when every house in the country has to install it.
Today residential use amounts of 15% energy used in USA, and 40% of electricity use.
In Florida, HVAC accounts to 40% of energy bill of the household.
40% of 15% is not that much, even if everyone is using AC.
That seems like a huge amount of additional energy usage that's going to further exacerbate the problem, which is the position I took originally.
Just because you can make it look small by focusing on the percentage doesn't change that. At the end of the day it means, if we accept these numbers, that the total national energy usage would go up by around 7%. That then gets multiplied across France Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, the UK & Ireland etc., to the point that the total power usage is as if we suddenly had another entire country.
And keep in mind while considering any of these numbers that our current 100% is already much higher than where we need to be at to avoid widespread ecological disasters. We need to be reducing our usage not saying "well it's only a few percent more."
Same. That's what I'll do.
As someone living in Spain, this is the only time of the year when I'm happy to go to the office. Yet, I think people need a tutorial on how to use the AC: it's 38ºC outside, but in my cubicle it's about 19ºC - I would be OK with 26ºC.
19 degrees is crazy, I thought that offices and public buildings were limited to 25 degrees?
EDIT: I didn't search too long but I found an article from a few years ago talking about the limit being 27 degrees. https://www.elnacional.cat/es/economia/sanchez-limita-aire-a...
you are absolutely correct, the problem is that some people don't care at all (I'm working in a WeWork office)
If policy makers were smarter technocrats, they would know that passive cooling film technology exists now and can cool surfaces below ambient by rejecting sunlight and having high thermal emissivity (unlike metallic reflectors). Add this everywhere to reduce A/C and lower urban heat island effects.
It’s basically performs optically like snow. Paint doesn’t work because it gets dirty too fast, films can incorporate anti-fouling tech.
Delivery companies are already putting these on their vehicles (look at the top of UPS trucks in the US, if there is a giant white rectangle, that’s it).
AFAIK the top of UPS trucks are mainly translucent just to allow light to shine through, so that you don't have to light up the cargo part of the truck. The cooling part doesn't seems too effective.
As someone who lives in Canada, I can say "performs optically like snow" can be completely blinding. Still, it seems like a good idea as long as we're careful about sight lines.
Currently in Versailles in a hotel without air conditioning (albeit on the shady north side of the building). During the day it's not so bad with the windows closed, drapes drawn, and tabletop fan. (Speaking as someone accustomed to Florida temperatures, humidity, and widely available air conditioning.)
In the evening, say 19h00, the sun is low and it's quite pleasant out. ("It's a dry heat," as we say!) I always forget how far north Paris and Versailles are: the sky still has some light past 22h30 this time of year.
Keep cool and stay safe, mes amis !
The main problem with high temperatures in cold countries is that most homes have a lot of insulation which keeps the heat accumulated during the day trapped in the home well into the night.
In warmer countries that heat usually dissipates by the time you go to sleep because the homes don't have as much insulation.
It’s ironic that the hotter Europe gets, the wetter and colder Norway gets in summer.
I was in southern Francz last week. There the heatwave (consistent 34C+ in the day, consistent 24+ during the night) started exactly two weeks ago with a single interruption last Wednesday night (which was nice but caused the wind to fall on Thursday making sailing boring).
Since I left last Saturday, the heat got close to 43 and birds are falling from their nest, knocked out by the high temperature. Good luck to anyone there.
You got out at the right time, we're currently like this here: https://www.meteociel.fr/previsions-arome-1h/12179/montpelli...
Night really is the worst, I don't care about the day, personally.
Normal summer weather is used to install anxiety in the minds of the populace, so they will easier accept future draconian measures.
40 C is extremely high for Paris. Why lie about information that is easy to lookup? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_i...
Out of interest, how do you interpret that diagram?
Me I see a gradual increase since the 50’s, with the very latest year being very low (20 degrees) probably because the dataset has not yet been updated for this year.
How do you read it?
Yeah, can’t conclude anything about 2025. But it seems the temperatures are mostly stable over many decades, with large variations between each year.
It’s always entertaining that those warning of science being used to introduce tyrrany are gleefully embracing tyrrany in the next breath.
There is nothing normal about this, as you can easily verify by looking at recorded weather history.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve had these temperatures in summer as a child in the same location I am now.
Oh yes 2003, how about a 2003 every year?
I'd expect a bit more statistical knowledge here...
In my country we’re experiencing the first heatwave in more than 3 years..
Used to be every 2 years in my childhood.
Both the duration and average and maximum temperature are all lower now compared to my childhood.
Is that enough statistics for extreme temperatures not being that extreme compared to previously? At least in my country?
It would seem foolish to trust the temperature records from the same people who want to install draconian measures using temperatures as an excuse.
How do you define "the same people"? Everyone who publishes weather data?
What agenda do you think people have that are long dead?
If you distrust everything you can measure it yourself. I am still in youth and even I can see changes myself. There used to be snow in the winter and now it's rare for example. Yes that is weather not climate; I don't live long enough to see climate changes. But there are oil paintings from 300 years ago. Are these fake?
Genuine question: How do you know, that people who know climate change is made-up are trustworthy and don't have their own agenda?
I have no idea if they have their own agenda, but their ends (such as supporting private transportation and meat consumption) I support. Even if I didn’t trust them, and I don’t trust them either, the ends justify the means.
My God the radicalisation funnel produces some utter brain rot. Unsubstantiated accusations, slippery positions designed to distance your moral culpability in the consequences of your actions. Seriously, read yourself sometime.
The radicalisation of… check notes… being able of affording meat and a car.
> check notes
Please avoid snarky tropes like this on HN.
Do you despise public transport as a concept or just the current subpar implementation?
I think climate research is orthogonal to any political agenda, i.e. opposing private transportation and meat consumption doesn't follow from accepting that the climate is getting warmer and the validity of political agendas has no effect on the authenticity of climate research data.
I don’t really care too much about what happens to public transportation as long as I’m not forced to use it, which is what they want to do.
So do you reject the theory that weather is getting warmer on average on its one or only when it is combined with a specific political agenda?
Weather analysts?
What "draconian measures"? Planting trees and installing water fountains?
You know those draconian trees. That would be some very severe foliage.
Temperature is one of the easiest things to measure.
We know the effect of urban heat islands, stations sitting issues, mercury to thermistors upgrade transitions, time of observation bias, etc.
What we do with this data is a political situation, as the world is in a cooling cycle globally: https://www.climate.gov/media/16817
We have the technology to mitigate all of this, but not a critical baseline of education in the population to make the necessary sacrifices.