On Saturday, a heat record will also be set in Paris for the month of June. Michael is not the only one who has problems in the extreme heat.
With big sunglasses, Olga Yefimova sits and dangles her legs in the water next to the biggest sight in Paris. People take selfies near the water spray from the fountains at the Eiffel Tower. The water sellers have good days. Fortunately, water is vital during a heat wave. The degree has crept upwards in recent days. The peak temperature in Paris on Saturday will be in excess of 38 degrees, reports MeteoFrance.
– It is very hot. Actually, I wanted to travel to the ocean. It was my dream. Instead, there were visits to friends in Paris, says Olga Yefimova, who lives further north in France.
The new normal
The heat records are being broken one by one in cities and municipalities in France. This weekend there are temperatures up to 40 degrees in almost the whole country. In some places also up to 42 degrees. Never before have such high average temperatures been measured in June. Previous heat waves have been in July and August, which are considered the summer in southern Europe.
The extreme heat comes from North Africa and started in Spain and Portugal last week with temperatures well into the 30s. In Seville, in southern Spain, the temperature was up to 42 degrees, and rounded 43 degrees in the city of Andújar in the south-east of the country. Spanish fire crews have fought several forest fires outside Barcelona. The fires are the result of extreme drought after the very high temperatures in June.
The heat continues towards Belgium, but on Sunday thunderstorms and rain are expected and the extreme weather is over this time.
People are asked to stay as far away as possible from direct sunlight outdoors. Make sure that the temperature does not get too high indoors, but it is not as easy when the night temperature creeps above 26 degrees in some places.
– COOLING: Olga Yefimova cools her feet in the fountain by the Eiffel Tower. Photo: Santiago Vergara / TV 2
–
– It’s too hot, and I do not like to work in this heat, says street sweeper Michael Cherubin.
He has drawn into the shadows and licks his throat with an energy drink. His weapon against the heat is a lot of liquid and shadow. Michael is from Martinique and used to heat, but he says the heat is different in Paris. It is much heavier to work in the heat of the French capital, because the pollution is extremely high due to the heat.
– Are you worried about climate change?
– No, he says and shrugs.
– NOT SATISFIED: The figure in the window of this Japanese restaurant in Paris is not happy. Tourists and locals are also breathing heavily in the record heat. Photo: Santiago Vergara / TV 2
–
The heat wave has led to more awareness about climate change in France. Sunday is the parliamentary election in France, and the climate debate has been almost absent in the election campaign. In the past, French media mostly made reports about children in fountains during heat waves. Now there are also climate experts in the TV studios. Debates are organized about the big cities of the future and the need for more parks, so that people can find shade for extreme heat.
– This heat wave is a foretaste of our future climate, writes climatologist Christophe Cassou on Twitter. He is a member of the government’s climate panel.
– What we see confirms our forecasts month after month. Denying how serious this is is no longer an option, he says.
According to Cassou, the summers in 2050 will be as the heat waves are now.
Museums like cooling
The tourists are back in Paris after the pandemic, Two of them are Tilly and Pirette from Amsterdam. They are on a big city weekend and tell about a lot of care from Parisian waiters in the heat.
– was just at a restaurant and ate. The waiters came with water all the time.
They have found the solution to avoid the heat.
– We will find some museums to visit, because it is cool there.
Everything goes a little slower when it’s so hot. Many stay indoors, but despite the heat, some venture into a battle of petanque in the middle of Paris.
Arno Pascal has put on his sun hat and throws the iron ball across the field with hard sand. Sweat runs down the participants. He is on team building with his colleagues. Everyone wears the same sun hats with the company logo, as protection against the sun.
– This heat is completely unusual. I will be indoors the rest of the day, says Arno.
In 2003, 70,000 people in Europe died in the worst heat wave to date. After that, many countries made contingency plans for periods of extreme heat.
In France, you can sign up to be called periodically for a check if you are feeling well in the heat. You can also get home visits. This is an offer for the oldest and weakest. In addition, there are “cooling centers” in the larger cities. There you can drop in, have a drink and cool off in an air-conditioned setting.
– We are responsible for the very weakest. Everyone should check how their loved ones are doing, is the advice Alexandre Joussard, spokesman for the Civil Defense, gives. Among other things, the civil defense has had to break into overheated cars, where children have been left behind.
–
–
–
–
–
ENDURES: Olga Yefimova endures the heat, and thinks about how her countrymen are doing in Ukraine. She came to France in April.
Olga brings with her a large cooling thermos with water to the water’s edge at the Eiffel Tower.
– I drink three liters of water a day now.
The extreme heat is still nothing compared to what is happening in her home country. Olga is a Ukrainian refugee and came to France in April, to be with her 18-year-old son. Her husband is a soldier in the Ukrainian forces and fights against the Russians in Donbass. The former director of a kindergarten outside Kyiv has a sore heart for Ukraine. A few days of heat she endures.
–
