At least 18 people died in France, including two children left in a hot car, as a heat wave gripped Europe and smashed temperature records in several cities Monday.

As schools in France closed ‌or modified their schedules, forecasters in Britain predicted temperatures could break June records this week.

The temperature in Bordeaux in France’s western wine country rose to 41.9 C, breaking a record set last August. In Poitiers, in central France, it reached 41.2 C, surpassing a previous high set in 1947.

  • comador @lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    As a Californian yank who has spent a combined 2 years living in East Sussex, England and León, Spain; let me just say this:

    There’s dumbasses, highly ignorant chads and plenty of wankers on both sides of the pond who will readily make stupid comments.

    Any comments about the US being hotter than the EU really comes down to a lack of basic knowledge that most Europeans don’t have Air Conditioning and are therefore unprepared to deal with prolonged heatwaves.

    Sure, we Californians for example endure entire months of continuous 33’C weather, but we’re prepared for it here. We expect to have two seasons here: Summer and Spring for fucks sake.

    Europeans however don’t expect that and the only criticism you all are entitled to here is that this isn’t going to go away. All you Europeans need to be pushing for infrastructure now instead of fucking talking and talking and talking some more about it.

    • Leon@pawb.social
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      16 hours ago

      It’s also the buildings.

      I live in Sweden. My flat was built in the 60s, and it’s made to retain heat. It was part of the million programme and is incredibly sturdy. I half joke it’d survive a nuclear bomb, but it very well might. There’s even a shelter.

      Past few days we’ve had temps going up to around 27. That’s not too bad if you’re outside. In my flat however the temps easily rise to 32, and has even hit 35. Opening a window helps a little, but the entire building heats up and retains this heat.

      While it gets cooler outside during the night, the building is still radiating heat, and it doesn’t fully dissipate come morning. I have a portable AC, and while it works well, the moment you turn it off the heat that remains in the walls, ceiling, and floor quickly radiates out and completely nullifies the efforts of the AC.

      Many places in the U.S. has the complete opposite problem. Like this example.

      It’s not about people being wimps, it’s about the climate changing in fairly chaotic and extreme ways, and our adaptations to protect against the weather simply not keeping up.

    • village604@adultswim.fan
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      15 hours ago

      Same goes for Northernrs making fun of the south shutting down due to snow.

      It just doesn’t make sense to maintain a fleet of salt trucks for the one day every 3 years it ices badly.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Yep. It’s all about infrastructure and change.

      I do wonder if they’ll get everything hooked up to AC right as the AMOC collapses and send the UK and europe into a mini-ice-age.