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'Hell is coming': week-long heatwave begins across Europe
- olivermarks 7y agoVintage Guardian headline
- digikazi 7y agoThat's true, it does sound a little over the top. But as somebody who has experienced first-hand a European heatwave, I can honestly say at the time it really did feel like hell. I am not a climatologist or a meteo guy, but I was lucky enough to be able to have a career break in my early 30's. Just for the heck of it I studied geography; my degree came with a heavy element of climate science. I think I retained a fascination with heatwaves - not necessarily the "mechanics" of it, but rather how people/societies live and adapt to them.
- olivermarks 7y ago'...High humidity meant it would feel like 47C, experts warned. “El infierno [hell] is coming,” tweeted the TV meteorologist Silvia Laplana in Spain, where the AEMET weather service forecast temperatures of 42C by Thursday in the Ebro, Tagus, Guadiana and Guadalquivir valleys and warned of an “extreme risk” of forest fires.' Some South American style heat briefly affecting an area of Spain is translated by the Guardian as ''Hell is coming': week-long heatwave begins across Europe'. This is irresponsible journalism and rather typical of their negative sensationalism IMO. Don't underestimate the anxiety this can cause people
- J_cst 7y agoI also feel that also in weather forecast business there's a lot of sensationalism just to get attention shares from the public.
- stuartd 7y agoTranslated by the Guardian?! They are literally using a quote from a meteorologist in one of the countries that will be affected.
- olivermarks 7y agohttps://twitter.com/slaplana_tve/status/1143038630144950273 https://twitter.com/slaplana_tve/status/1143038630144950273
- stuartd 7y agoIndeed. And “infierno” translates as “hell” http://www.spanishcentral.com/translate/infierno http://www.spanishcentral.com/translate/infierno
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- monk_e_boy 7y agoWe’re due storms mid-week. So that’ll be fun.
- truthwhisperer 7y agosure all due to global warming click-bait
- mrosett 7y agoEuropeans seem to enjoy mocking American fondness for air-conditioning (including, occasionally, on this forum). But heatwaves in the US don't kill tens of thousands of people [0]. The forecast for Phoenix this week is north of 105F/40C every day this week and gets up to 110F/43C, and while summer in Arizona is hardly pleasant, it doesn't have disastrous results. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave
- mft_ 7y agoA lot of the mockery I've seen isn't related to Americans having air conditioning per se, but rather the ridiculously low temperatures the things seem to be set to during summer. I was in DC a couple of summers ago and the hotel I was in was so cold, I needed 2-3 layers (including a warm sweater) indoors... despite the temperature outside being ~40*C!
- dmortin 7y agoI don't get it either. Anyone has an explanation? Why is it good if it's so cold inside you have to wear a sweater?
- mrosett 7y ago<speculation> I think there are two things: * Precisely calibrating the temperature of a large space is really hard, and people are surprisingly aware of slight differences in temperature. To me, 68 degrees can feel like "I want a sweater" and 74 can feel like "It's sweltering in here." And preferences vary a lot across individuals * Coming in from the hot to the cold can create a large shock even if the building isn't that cold. If you're outside sweating in hot, humid weather, walking into a cool, dry room will feel frigid at first. Over time, though, it will feel more normal. </speculation>
- mikhailt 7y agoThis is pretty much it; it's much easier to ask people to wear more clothing than it is to take them off. Even in an apartment with 3 roommates, we'd have a fight because someone thinks 72 is too cold and it is too hot for me even if I'm barely naked.
- baxtr 7y ago37-40 C is hot, granted. But, isn't this the temperature that places like Bagdad, Northern India etc. endure every year for weeks?
- polotics 7y agoDelhi & Baghdad have got dry heat. Italy with 37 is going to feel a lot more like black-flag weather.
- J_cst 7y agoIn Italy... Where? Milan is totally different from Rome, which is very different from Rimini or Catania. Generalizations are usually misleading.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mft_ 7y agoSure... but in hotter climates, clothing and buildings are better geared for it - white for reflectivity, through-draughts, hard floors, etc. In northern Europe housing is generally set up to cope with cold winters.
- antisthenes 7y agoThere are design patterns that are beneficial regardless of temperatures - high thermal mass (smooth out the extremes), reversible blinds (black/white) - control extra solar power coming into your home. Besides, Europe is not such a small place either. Many houses in the South are geared towards hotter weather and have the the features you described. They also get notoriously cold in case there's a cold snap, since they aren't insulated very well.
- AstralStorm 7y agoThese things are not free, you know. Especially thermal mass which requires thick walls or essentially heat exchangers. And solar is kind of hard to put on walls of a building you do not own.
- abootstrapper 7y agoOdds are it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. Invest in long term efficient cooling strategies.
- cryofan 7y agothe climate change scammers are gonna exploit every heatwave this summer...they have to--their past predictions haven pretty much discredited
- singularity2001 7y agoIndia just had weeks of 40-52°C, how dare we call some days of 35-40° a heat wave?
- yladiz 7y agoFYI a heat wave is relative to the climate in which it occurs, not globally.