A heat wave sweeping much of Europe showed few signs of relenting Monday, when temperatures soared past 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37.8 Celsius, in many places in the south.
In Italy, heat warnings were issued for 16 cities. And in France — still scarred by a 2003 heat wave that killed thousands — the prime minister cancelled a trip to monitor the effects of the weather.
How bad is it? A nuclear reactor in southern France had to shut down, because discharging its heated water into an already-overheated river would have endangered wildlife.
Through it all, Europeans tried their best to bear up, especially in places where air conditioning is still a luxury, or frowned upon. Some people worry about the pollution it causes; some older Italians just believe it’s bad for health.
Governments tried to help, in some cases putting restrictions on outdoor work and sending municipal workers to check on elderly residents.
Tourists still bent on being outdoors struggled. In Rome, visitors wilted at cafes even as they were spritzed by outdoor misting fans. Some sought respite from the heat in cavernous ancient monuments, which didn’t always help.
“It was cool looking at it, but not in temperature,” Eileen Santos, a tourist from the San Francisco Bay Area, said walking out of the Pantheon. Across the square, tourists filled water bottles from jets of water spouting from a 16th century fountain. Lines formed at some of the more than 3,000 water fountains that Romans affectionately call “nasoni,” or big noses.
Rome is one of the 16 cities that had a “Level 3 warning” signaling “possible negative effects on healthy and active persons, not only those at risk.”
“In some places in Europe, we are experiencing temperatures that have never been recorded before, so it is really unusual,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, based in Spain. But he added that this was “not surprising, because with climate change, we’re bound to see more intense, longer and more frequent heat waves, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.”
In France, suffocating heat gripped most of the country, but it spared the country’s northernmost edges. Temperatures, which exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 Celsius, in some areas, will peak Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the national weather forecaster.
The government held a crisis meeting Sunday evening.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
