More accidents due to heat
Heat can also be dangerous on the road. In 2007, the Foundation for Road Safety Research (SWOV) published results of a study into the question of how the weather affects road safety.
According to a German study, emotions increase with great heat, and people react more irritably to each other. And French researchers found that more accidents happen during heat waves. As a possible explanation for this, they mentioned, among other things, that drivers sleep worse or shorter at night because it does not cool down at night.
Save fish and dragonflies
In many places, animals are also affected by the heat. In Brabant, a professional fisherman transfers fish from the Strijpse Beek to other water. Water Board Aa en Maas expects the stream to run dry and has therefore asked Sportvisserij Zuidwest Nederland to save the fish there.
The water board will also be pumping a layer of water in two streams in the short term, the Esperloop near Gemert and the Hooge Raam in Escharen. There is a very rare dragonfly, the common spring dragonfly. It needs running water to survive. According to the water board, it is very likely that the streams will run dry without intervention.
Keep bridges
Bridges also have problems when it is hot. A few years ago, several municipalities had to leave bridges open all day, because such a bridge expanded due to the heat, with the risk that it could no longer open at all.
Movable bridges are now kept wet at temperatures above 25 degrees.
The Rijn en IJssel Water Board, for example, will start cooling the bridges over the Oude IJssel at Laag Keppel and Terborg tomorrow. “A little expansion is possible. This has been taken into account during construction. Most movable bridges have about 8 to 10 millimeters of clearance,” writes the Municipality of Amsterdam on its site. But a few days a year, the somewhat older movable bridges can expand between 10 and 14 millimeters and then something really has to be done.
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