A heat wave is producing a red alert all over France, with record-breaking temperatures, notes NPR. Temperatures are expected to reach 103 degrees in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday, and already reached 108 degrees in Bordeaux:
Millions of people across France woke up drenched in sweat on Tuesday after another night of scorching heat, with most of the population exposed to extreme and exceptional temperatures.
Temperatures will remain exceptionally high around the clock as the national weather service placed 54 departments under a red heat wave alert.
In a country without widespread air-conditioning, schools, trains and sporting events remain impacted, while some 20 drowning deaths have been reported since the weekend.
Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year…
The heat wave is exceptionally intense…It has already been compared to the August 2003 heat wave, when the highest temperatures in over half a century caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.
Two children were found dead in a car in southeast France, due to the heat.
On the bright side, the river that flows through Paris is now so clean that you can swim in it. So hot French people can jump into it to escape the heat.
Some French people are very opposed to air conditioning, viewing it as an unhealthy American practice. But they sure could benefit from it now.
Far more people die from the heat in Europe than the U.S., even though America is generally hotter in summer. That’s because Europeans are much less likely to have air conditioning. More people die of overheating in Europe than die in the U.S. from homicide and overheating combined.
But in some European countries, people are finally getting air conditioning. “The number of homes in the UK with air conditioning has doubled over the past three years, reaching an estimated 4 million,” reported The Doomslayer.
The Guardian reports:
An estimated 4m homes in the UK now have air conditioning, double the figure from three years ago as Britons complain of ‘unliveable’ conditions during high temperatures.
Portable units with power ratings around 1kW are slightly more common than the more powerful built-in versions that can guzzle 2.7kW of power – more than an electric oven.
Experts suggest the increase in ownership is the result of more people working from home and rising summer temperatures. Some of the UK’s warmest summers have been in recent years, and the UK’s hottest day was in July 2022, when temperatures hit 40C [104 degrees Fahrenheit].
An AI Overview explained:
Significantly more people die from heat in Europe than in the U.S. Estimates show that extreme heat claims over 175,000 lives annually in the WHO European Region, compared to roughly 1,300 annual heat-related deaths in the U.S. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]Even when adjusted for Europe’s larger population, the per-capita rate of heat deaths is roughly 20 to 28 times higher than in the U.S. [1, 2]Several factors contribute to this disparity:
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Air Conditioning: In the U.S., approximately 90% of households have air conditioning, whereas air conditioning in Europe remains much less common, with market penetration around only 20%.
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Aging Population: Europe has a high proportion of elderly residents, who are the most vulnerable to extreme heat events.
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Infrastructure: European homes and public buildings are historically built to trap heat for the winter, and many are not constructed to ventilate or cool during summer heat waves.
Moreover, “significantly more people die from extreme heat in Europe than from homicides in the United States. Heat in Europe is a massive, deadly issue that claims tens of thousands of lives each year, completely dwarfing the U.S. annual homicide rate of roughly 20,000 to 25,000 victims.”
In the U.S., air conditioners and refrigerant cost more than they used to, due to Biden-era regulations.
But at least in the U.S. you can just install air conditioning when you need it, and don’t need to get a special permit or doctor’s prescription just to install it. By contrast, in certain European cities like Geneva or Zurich, “for a permanent, fixed AC system, you generally need a special permit, and in some cases, a medical certificate is required.”
