(Way OT) How bad is the heat wave in Europe?

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Round here we are finally having the above 100 degree weather that I love.

The West Texas Summer came late this year.

There is a lot of air conditioning, but I try very hard not to use it. Too much of it always makes me ill. Not looking forward to the end of summer and returning to a working culture that makes us wear horrificly inappropriate clothes in buildings that could never have AC reliable enough to suit their plans.

Enjoy the warm weather nights if you can. I imagine the opportunities to really enjoy margaritas on a porch are fairly limited in England.

In a long term warming trend England might actually loose its current water and air currents rendering it colder.

Ice and tree records are accurate as far as they go, but there is a lot of dispute over how much they actually mean for determining a global or accurate model, particularly in relation to current events.

I think Scientific American had a very nice article on this recently. That and the new survey of tree and ice data on the warm middle ages, little ice age, and the state of current affairs.

With a very nice commentary on the inherently political nature of scientific inquiry into global climate change in America. All those poor archaeologists looking forward to a quiet career of site consultation on climate history, now their field is pure rhetorical guava.

 

[Sixchan]

Bah. It's so hot here I'm sweating my body water away at a rate of knots, and it's so bright I'll go blind if I step outside.

I prefer overcast and room-temperature warmth myself. That way it's like inside...outside!

 

[The Forsaken One]

Hey Edena and William and Darkeness and anyone else who played in THE GAME OF GAMES (tm).

Well here in Holland it's all good. Bit warm and all but nothing that bad, except that I absolutely detest hot weather that is... And at my vacation job I keep walking in and out of airconditioned rooms the whole time. After a week of suffering a temperature difference of over 15 degrees each time it finally got me. I spend 2 days puking and feel like my head was about to explode and nauseous like hell.

But it's nice swimming weather and getting a tan in good (for the ladies that is, not for your skin hehe.)

How are you guys doing btw?

 

[Morbidity]

Lovely weather … I’ve finally thawed out after leaving Oz behind plus a definite excuse for having ice-cream for dinner and that can never be a bad thing.

 

[Bagpuss]

London in the sunny weather

 

[Serpenteye]

Up here in Sweden the temperature is quite pleasant. Right now it's about 23 degrees C on the west coast. Water temperatures are warm but refreshing and the trees are doing just fine

It seems there's a cold front of air moving in towards western Europe from the Atlantic ocean, so the rest of Europe may soon enjoy more normal temperatures as well.

__

Hi Edena, Forsaken One, William Ronalds and Darkness, . Nice to see you all again.

 

[thullgrim]

its been 90-95 degrees here in germany where I live (bitburg). Its farm country and I have never seen germany this brown before. I used to live in Arizona where you expect to see alot of heat but this is getting a little ridiculous. Watching CNN europe I see the forest fires buring in Portugal and the French med coast and it looks just like the american west and southwest during the fire season. Hotest its been in europe in thirty years.

Thullgrim

 

[Madfox]

At this moment I am looking at a temperature bar of the last 100 years of the Netherlands. This year is not a record year at the moment, though it certainly can become one if these temperatures do not change for the coming month. Chances that it will be the hottest summer since temperatures have been measured though are unlikely, unless summer remain hot for the coming 70 days or so that is. For the curious, the Dutch record year was 1947 with 4 heat waves and over 80 days with temperatures above 25 C and another 100 or so with temperatures between 20 C and 25 C (which only shows how are normal temperature ranges are - to us it is a warm summer day when the temperature rises above 20 C).

As for effects on society - 25 to 30 C are not nearly as hot as in some other areas. I also live about 3 km from the coast, so there is always a pleasent refreshing wind. The trees are still green and the farmers of grain are cheering (the only ones in Europe probably). The harvests are record high and they already harvested the grain (which apparently is very early for this region), added to the fact that the grain harvests in Southern Europe are incredilby low they are looking at some very good profits. Other farmers are less lucky. The trees are still green, but if in the next two weeks there will be no rain, trouble starts to arise. Our main problem are algea who are poisoning the water and the longer this weather continues how higher the chance from them ruining swimming water as well as drinking water and water for irrigation.

I am glad though that my house lies in the shadows during summer and that we have a very good air conditioning at work

 

[AGGEMAM]

Some advice for our European members:

1. Keep the refrigerator door closed. Leaving it open will make the motor work harder and overheat.

Who would be stupid enough to do such a thing.

3. Lots of fluids. Water if you can get nothing else, but if you can find them at a reasonable price, sports drinks such as Gatorade.

Only water. Anything with sugar or sugarsubstitutes will only make you more dehydrated.

6. Dress lightly. Cottons if you can find them. Loose mesh polyesters etc. if you can't. It's better to have air moving next to your skin and be a bit 'exposed' than to be 'properly' garbed and dead of overheating. (Besides which, morticians and coroners will have a look at your skyclad corpse as they either prepare your body for burial, or determine the cause of death. According to their respective specialties.)

Cotton or wool, is preferable over any synthetic material.

7. Eat light. Heavy foods can make the heat feel worse. In addition, eat in the early morning, and the late evening. You won't have much of an appetite in the heat of the day anyway.

Plain wrong. Eat like you normally would, that is better for your system. (Unless you normally eat something that is heavy on fat, like burgers and fries, then this might be a good time to change your diet.)

 

[Ysgarran]

BBC mentioned this morning that Germany is concerned that the the heat wave might be hurting their economy.

Ysgarran.