Main Points
- Met Éireann says daytime temperatures will be in excess of 27 degrees during the week before climbing towards 30 degrees on Thursday
- The heat dome has pushed temperatures above 40 degrees in parts of western Europe this week
- Schools in England and Wales are shut or closing early as temperatures soar across the UK
- Electricity prices have risen sharply across European markets in recent days, due to the heatwave as people seek air conditioning
- 94 million people in Europe are to experience temperatures above 35 degrees today
- France recorded its hottest day ever on Tuesday, as forty people have drowned while swimming in unsupervised areas across the country
- It is now time to look at mitigation measures to cope with warmer temperatures, academic warns
Key Reads
- From sunscreen to staying cool: how to keep yourself and your family safe in the heat
- ‘Bathers should take care’: Swimmers advised to avoid some spots in Dublin due to rainfall
- In pictures: Europe swelters in heat dome
Here are some photos from around Europe during the heatwave:
Heatwave reduces France’s nuclear output
A heatwave sweeping western Europe reduced France’s nuclear output on Wednesday as high temperatures across the country reduced access to water needed to cool reactors, Reuters reported.
Output was reduced by 4.1 gigawatts, or 7 per cent, of total power demand at midday, data from French utility EDF showed.
Rise in children experiencing sunburn, UK expert says
Ken Dunn, consultant burns and plastic surgeon (retired) and vice chair at the Children’s Burn Trust (CB), told PA: “We are seeing a worrying rise in children experiencing sunburn, which is painful, distressing and entirely preventable”.
“Simple steps like keeping children out of direct sun, covering up exposed skin and reapplying sunscreen regularly can make a real difference.”
Time to look at mitigation measures, Maynooth University academic warns
It is now time to look at mitigation measures to cope with warmer temperatures which will continue because of global emissions, Dr Claire Bergin of the Irish Climate Analysis Research Units (ICARUS) at Maynooth University has warned.
Bergin told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that summers were definitely getting warmer and there was a need to slow down the increase in “human-caused climate change.”
It was time now to look at mitigation measures, “to put health practices in place, to look at your homes and evaluate them, how can you make them cooler in these warm temperatures? It’s all together very important,” she said.
What we were experiencing now was “basically a stacking of high-pressure systems through our atmosphere, from the lower levels to the upper levels, that just sit on top of each other and create this really hot, warm area underneath”.
“What we’re definitely finding is that these temperatures are increasing because of human-caused climate change. There’s more heat in these systems because of our emissions of fossil fuels and we’re adding to these global temperatures.”
Research at ICARUS and internationally was showing that these high-intensity heat episodes were being made more likely because of climate change, she said.
94 million people in Europe to experience temperatures about 35 degrees today
At least 94 million people in Europe are expected to experience temperatures above 35 degrees today, most of them in France and Spain, according to AFP estimates.
More than 350 million people will experience temperatures above 30. That’s two-third of the continent’s population.
Electricity prices rise in Europe due to heatwave
Electricity prices have risen sharply across European markets in recent days, as the heatwave has gripped much of the continent. Millions are turning to air conditioners and electric fans to battle the record high temperatures, pushing demand higher and also causing a string of power plant outages.
The Irish Times would like to hear from people from Ireland living or travelling in parts of Europe impacted by extreme heat. How are you coping? Are transport networks impacted? Has your work or holiday been impacted or have you changed your plans as a consequence of the heat?
What is day-to-day life like living in these conditions? You can share your experiences of hot weather in Europe by using the form here.
Europe heatwave ‘putting people’s health at risk,’ WHO chief warns
Head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that Europe’s heatwave is “putting people’s health at risk.”
“Europe’s heatwave is closing schools and putting people’s health at risk. The data are clear: temperatures across Europe are rising at roughly twice the global average rate, increasing the likelihood and severity of extreme heat in the future,” he said.
Ireland ‘at the edge’ of European heat dome as Met Éireann issues hot-weather warnings
With temperatures in Ireland bouncing around the mid-20s, Met Éireann has issued a status yellow advisory from midday Tuesday until Friday morning, warning of “exceptionally warm weather” that could lead to water safety issues, uncomfortable sleeping conditions and heat stress.
This is the second time this summer a prolonged heatwave has seized the Continent. But behind this spike in temperatures is a “heat dome” hovering above the land mass.
The phrase “heat dome” has only come into use relatively recently and “isn’t a traditional meteorological term”, according to Matthew Martin, a forecasting meteorologist at Met Éireann. He said it was commonly used “to refer to a slow moving area of high pressure” that “usually develops above large, continental areas”.
Read our full explainer here.
Here is the weather forecast for today, with temperatures for some of the key European cities:
Paris 41 degrees
Bordeaux 39 degrees
Madrid 38 degrees
Frankfurt 37 degrees
Brussels 36 degrees
Rome 35 degrees
Bologna 35 degrees
London 34 degrees
Amsterdam 34 degrees
Zurich 32 degrees
Prague 32 degrees
Berlin 31 degrees
Barcelona 31 degrees
Essentially, if you are anywhere between Lisbon (24) and Warsaw (27), it will be super hot.
Europe is facing another day of an unprecedented heatwave, with temperatures breaking records in several countries.
A Met Éireann high-temperature alert kicked in at noon on Tuesday, and runs until Friday, with a daily high of 28.3 degrees recorded at the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The UK is braced for record-breaking temperatures, with schools to close and people urged not to travel, as temperatures are set to potentially reach 40 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday in some parts of England and Wales, and a red weather warning for extreme heat is in place for areas stretching from London to Swansea and Somerset to Birmingham.
On Tuesday, France registered its hottest day on record as 40 people across the country were confirmed to have drowned while swimming in unsupervised areas over the last few days. More than 90 per cent of the French population is exposed to extreme heat – government data shows.
Rome, Milan, Florence, Turin, Venice and 10 other Italian cities were subject to the state’s highest level of alert, meaning the heat is deemed to pose a risk to the general population.
In the coming days, the heatwave is expected to extend into eastern Europe.
“Around the world climate disasters are becoming more frequent, more destructive and more costly,” United Nations secretary general António Guterres told a climate conference in London, while the city was gripped by suffocating heat. “London isn’t just calling, it’s cooking,” he said.
We’ll have live updates here throughout the day on the situation across Europe.
How to sleep in hot weather
Irish homes are designed to retain heat in colder months, which can quickly make them feel stuffy and warm as temperatures rise, leaving us searching for ways to cool down to sleep more comfortably.
The Irish Times published a piece on this last week, advising on simple ways to adapt your home to help it feel cooler. These include:
Keeping blinds and curtains closed during the hottest part of the day to keep the room cooler. If you are renovating or extending your home, it is worth thinking carefully about glazing and shading too.
Cooking outdoors where possible or using smaller appliances such as air fryers, instead of ovens or hobs, and keeping extraction fans running after cooking.
Rethinking bedding and switching to a lighter 4.5 tog duvet, as well as using breathable natural fabrics such as cotton and linen.
Read the full piece here.
Lower temperatures could come to parts of Europe later today
Some relief from the heatwave could start to come from the west of Europe later today, which is when Spain’s national weather service said temperatures would drop in most of the country.
By the afternoon, only parts of the Basque country in the north will still be marked red, and on Thursday no part of Spain will be rated either red or orange.
Power outages in France
About 68,000 households were without electricity in western France on Wednesday, authorities said – the country’s first major power outage of the latest bout of extreme weather.
The outage, which involved a transformer on the electricity grid, was related to extreme temperatures, the prefecture in the coastal department of Finistere said in a statement.
Tuesday was the hottest day recorded in France, with an average temperature of 29.8C across the country. Similar conditions are expected until the weekend, with highs between 40 and 42 degrees.
