Australia’s used to heatwaves. What makes Europe’s ‘heat dome’ different?

As an Australian living in Paris, France 24 English anchor Annette Young understands that Australians hardened to extreme heat “might wonder what all the fuss is about”. But, she says, this heatwave is different. Europe isn’t built for this.

Much of Europe is currently sweltering under a record heatwave, worsened by a deadly “heat dome” effect.

The dome – trapping a large area of high pressure and scorching hot air over Europe – has led to long days and nights of high temperatures in Britain, France and Spain. In France alone, officials said 45 people had died by Wednesday, 40 of them from drowning.

These official accounts are certain to tumble by a large degree. After the August 2003 heatwave that gripped Europe, researchers discovered 15,000 “excess deaths” in France alone, particularly in homes and retirement institutions.

On Tuesday night, Young tells this masthead from Paris, which sits in a valley and is known for its tightly built environment and zinc roofed-buildings, temperatures were 28 degrees after midnight. On Wednesday, France recorded its hottest-ever “national temperature indicator” – the average of day and night temperatures – of 30 degrees.

Unlike in Australia, new European buildings aren’t built to withstand heatwaves. And in Paris, strict regulatory bylaws prevent people from installing air conditioning with outdoor units protruding on the exterior wall of buildings, due to historical design regulations that preserve the continuity of design.

Public buildings are also ill-equipped for extreme heat. More than 800 schools closed in France, and some 1800 closed early this week, as temperatures rose into the 40s. Most schools have no airconditioning.

“To expect children and teenagers to study or do exams in that environment is ridiculous,” says Young.

“Of course you can’t. But I say this as someone who [hosts] a women’s program [on France 24] … They shut down the schools, or have asked additional schools to end their classes at lunchtime, but then you’ve got working parents. So, what are those working parents supposed to do?”

Young says that across Western Europe, particularly in Britain and France, there is growing awareness of the need to adapt to a warming climate, and the social and public health challenges it will bring.

Her colleague, France 24’s environment editor Valérie Dekimpe, agrees.

“France and the French public as a whole have underestimated the speed at which severe climate impacts were going to be felt,” she says via WhatsApp.

“Like many other rich countries, France has prioritised reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the expense of adaptation measures. We’ve been told that poorer nations are the ones bearing the brunt of the climate crisis and that they need funding to adapt. The reality is that we, in the West, are woefully unprepared.”

Last month, the European Centre for Medium–Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reported May had been marked by “a rapid transition from much cooler-than-average conditions to one of the most intense heatwaves ever observed this early in the year in Western Europe”.

“An unusually early and intense heatwave demonstrates how quickly climate extremes are becoming the new normal rather than the exception,” strategic lead for climate Samantha Burgess said.

France is directly under the heat dome, forcing the country to shut schools, cancel trains, and power down a nuclear reactor. Tourist sites including the Eiffel Tower have closed, while the Louvre will close early for the rest of the week.

In Britain, where temperatures reached a scorching 34 degrees in London, the adoption of airconditioning has doubled in the past three years. Even so, only 7 per cent of homes have permanent airconditioning installed, and another 8 per cent of households rely on portable units.

Climate Group chief executive Helen Clarkson, who is based in London, says European cities “weren’t built for this”.

“Kids are out of school, people are asked not to come into work, there’s a challenge to keep hospitals and nursing homes open, train tracks are melting, and people, often the most vulnerable, are dying.”

In Britain, commuters have been warned to avoid travelling by rail where possible. A red weather warning was issued for Wednesday and Thursday for a swath of southern England and Wales, and temperatures were expected to climb to a June record of 39 degrees.

“These are record-breaking temperatures, and they will cause health impacts,” Alex Deakin, a meteorologist at the UK Met Office told the media.

“This country isn’t built for those kind of temperatures because we don’t [usually] see them.”

The European heatwave is being driven by a weather pattern sometimes described as an “Omega block” because it takes the shape of the Greek letter Ω, trapping a bulge of hot air between cooler systems, and allowing temperatures to build day after day.

In normal conditions, weather systems move from west to east across Europe, but under the Omega pattern, hot air drawn from Northern Africa and the Sahara has become trapped over the continent.

Europe is warming at more than twice the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), making such prolonged heat episodes increasingly likely.

In its long-range forecast for Europe, the WMO predicts above-average temperatures will continue across southern Europe into September, a timeline that coincides with many Australians holidaying in the continent and Britain.

The French Minister for Ecological Transition Monique Barbut told France Inter on Wednesday that a third heatwave could strike Europe in July, after the current heatwave recedes next week.

“There is a strong probability that from July 6th we will return to extreme heat.”

France experienced its hottest day on record on Tuesday, with a peak of 44.3 degrees in one town in the south-west, official weather forecaster Meteo France said.

The forecaster said current conditions were comparable to the 16-day August 2003 heatwave, which led to an estimated 80,000 excess deaths across Europe.

The heat has also spilled into neighbouring countries including Spain, Italy and Britain, while Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and western Germany have recorded temperatures more than 12 degrees above the seasonal average.

With Reuters, Bloomberg