Here It Comes: Another Hot Summer in Europe

I will be in Paris for the Olympics. Was really hoping it wouldn't be this hot, but it is what it is!!

That's not good, coupled with the historic droughts that the Mediterranean Coast is currently enduring, especially in Spain, add in now tens of millions of tourists who visit these regions during the summer can only equal ecological disaster.

These days water is a scarce commodity in places like Barcelona, there's talk that there may even need to be water shipped in from other parts of Spain just to keep the city going over the summer, let's hope it doesn't come to that.

You can read more here
https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-barcelona-tourists-catalonia-anger-rain-water-drought/

Very interesting article Carlos. Does Barcelona have or are they considering desalination plants? Barcelona seems to be a mirror image to places in California.

Hi Threadwear, here's my post about the situation that I've been updating from time to time: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/think-twice-about-visiting-barcelona-this-summer-2024

Unfortunately a few posters got upset with the drought information I was sharing, so I stopped updating it for now.

As for the desalination plants, yes the idea is floated around in Barcelona for many years, with the local/regional government dragging their feet, and now when we actually have this climate emergency they want to try to build a few close to Barcelona, but that will take time. They estimate they will be up and running in 2028 or 2029... a little late though. For now locals must cut their daily water consumption so the tourists can have their swimming pools...

One of the problems with the article is it’s about weather and nobody can predict it with any accuracy within three days. LOL

Water shortages are always fascinating to me because there is always excess water somewhere within a country. Here in the US parts of California and the SW are dry, but in other locations water is more than plentiful. We can move oil and gas across continents, but we seem not to be able to figure out how to do that with water. Of course, there isn't big money in water like there is in oil and gas.

Good government should be using some of the income derived from tourism to solve this issue. Not only does it solve the water problem, but it does add jobs to the economy. Its not a question of, can we, but a question of will they? Good luck to those regions.

Threadwear, actually it's a question of money. Or rather energy. It takes huge amount of energy to run desalinization, and to pump water around a country. I saw estimates saying 25% of energy usage in California was for pumping water. Politically, the people who have the water don't like to just transfer their resource to the people who will use it up (see Chinatown). And of course, nobody wants to pay for it.

Let's talk heat

I am currently in Turku, Finland. According to the temperature charts, the highs should be hovering around 60. It was 80 yesterday and it will be like that for the next few days.

I came here from Helsinki where everyday was in the high 70's.

It's still only May.

No surprise at all since a few years.

See "The Heat Is On": Study of United Nations Climate Change (UNCC) from 2019 (download page).

"Changing climates: the heat is (still) on": Interesting statement from 2024 by Swiss Re, especially the 2023 temp curve in the graph with average temperatures.

CAT: tracking status of climate action. Aviation sector is on worst level.

Not all weather is climate but all European regions are and will be impacted by climate change.

Typical naive tourists' behavior: people fly to South Europe for example and then ask why it is so hot. I would use a different word to naive but this would violate community guidelines.

Amazing that they can predict the entire Summer, but can not predict this afternoon?

Carlos, no one got upset. They did discuss it. Continue the updates.

This week in Budapest the low is at about the historic average (14c) and the high is running about 2c above the historic average (27c). Last week was dead on the historic average. Interesting to see how it plays out. But I have AC and i love early mornings and late evenings.....

Amazing that they can predict the entire Summer, but can not predict this afternoon?

Three explanations:

1) Summer definition: In meteorology, the seasons begin at the start of the months of March, June, September and December. In astronomy, on the other hand, they begin on the days of the equinoxes or the highest and lowest points of the sun's orbit. These are the days between the 20th and 23rd of the before mentioned months. According to the meteorological calendar, summer therefore begins on June 1 (ends on August 31), while in astronomy (calendar) it begins on June 21 (and ends on September 21).

2) This forecasting is more about macro weather system modelling. This relates very much to jetstreams and possible results such as a long-lasting Omega weather situation (example) or a Vb weather situation.

3) "afternoon": better change the weather forecast service.

This chart shows "Daily Surface Air Temperature", the world-wide average. The gold line is 2023, the bold black line is year-to-date 2024. It's not unreasonable to expect some pretty hot weather in many places this summer. On the positive side of this, this year may be one of the future most pleasant years to visit Europe.

Unfortunately a few posters got upset with the drought information I was sharing, so I stopped updating it for now.

Keep posting about it Carlos, who cares if a few people get upset, it's too important an issue to refrain from highlighting.

I usually upset a few people when I highlight how barbaric bullfighting is but I don't care, the issue is far more important than worrying about upsetting some people.

I dont remember anyone getting upset over the facts about the drought? It is what it is, why would stating that upset anyone?

I dont remember anyone getting upset over the facts about the drought? It is what it is, why would stating that upset anyone?

Oh Mr. E.!!!!!!!

Many people hate facts...it spoils an opinion. If you ever want to end an online discussion, just inject some facts. It will end the discussion like a bucket of water on a good old Texas campfire. :)

All I remember was some discussion over how wide spread the "dont visit Barcelona" movement was among the local citizens and how it should affect the choice of a tourist. That ruffled some feathers. But those arent facts. Those are opinions. Good opinions on both sides as I recall. I hope Carlos keep reporting on it, facts and opinions.

But Threadwear, there have been times and situations where I am in total agreement with you.

Fact is that more people die in Europe than in the US for heat related problems. Less A/C, at least for the regular people,
When getting your hotel key cards, get two. Then you can leave one in the slot that shuts down the electric when you leave. Returning to a 90+ hotel room is not conducive to enjoying your vacation,

Fact is that more people die in Europe than in the US for heat related problems. Less A/C, at least for the regular people,

Can you please list number-based sources that seconds / prooves your statement about heat related dead people? TIA.

It's moments like this that I wish we still had emojis. But G-d forgive me, but I looked ... Treemoß2 is correct. It's moments like this that got our emojis taken away.

See below. Then again maybe I am only cherry picking news and it is fake. Please read the last line to cloud it all with further doubt.
Just want people to be aware, especially since as tourists you find yourself out and about more so than at home and there may be a dearth of places for refuge from the heat.

2:40 p.m. ET, July 18, 2023
Europe recorded far more heat-related deaths than the US last year. Here's why the numbers could vary so much
From CNN's Rachel Ramirez

Nearly 62,000 people died heat-related deaths last year during Europe’s hottest summer on record, a recent report showed — showing just how serious a health risk extreme heat can be.

In the US, heat kills more Americans than any other weather-related disaster, and the climate crisis has been making these extreme events more deadly. Yet the United States’ heat mortality numbers would suggest that far fewer people are dying from heat than in Europe. According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 700 people die heat-related deaths each year.

David S. Jones, a physician and historian at Harvard University, said there are a few explanations as to why US statistics seem low: The US could be underreporting its numbers, or heat is more lethal in Europe due to the lack of air conditioning — or it could be a combination of the two.

Jones said just 5% of households in France have air conditioning, for example, compared to nearly 90% in the US.

“But it comes back to this question of, well, is Europe just reporting more accurately than the US is?” Jones told CNN.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02419-z

The above link is an estimate of excess deaths in Europe -- "Heat-related mortality in Europe during the summer of 2022".
Here is a key quote: "Overall, we estimated 62,862 heat-related deaths in Europe in 2022; 61,672 of those deaths occurred between 30 May and 4 September. Italy, Spain, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Greece had the highest summer heat-related mortality numbers. "

Note that this study is "excess deaths".

The CDC numbers quoted by CNN were not "excess deaths"-- while I am not sure of their definition it am fairly confident they are counting only directly attributable heat related deaths. This is apples and oranges.

Hence, the comparison in the CNN article is invalid (although the conclusion may still be true that heat deaths are higher in Europe than the US because the US has more air conditioning.)

treemoss2, thanks. And David as well.
These are the infos I had already - I was hoping for other ones.

2022 was an extreme for some European countries - so not really representative. The med systems and staffs were very alerted diagnosing heat-related death cases.

I put a serious question mark on comparable medical indication of a dead person if you compare after-death analysis on a world-wide base. How many heat-related death cases are not idetified as those? Same discussion like the covid died with and died-from cases. But this issue we cannot solve here.

Nothing against you or your view based on articles with numbers.

The Three-Month Outlook issued recently by the UK Met Office indicates a 2.3 times normal chance of a hot summer and 1.5 times normal chance of a windy summer. No strong signal over normal chance for amounts of rain though..