Mora, a town in central Portugal. Wednesday. 40.3 degrees Celsius.
The thermometer didn’t lie. It smashed the previous May record of 40°C set way back in 2001. The sun wasn’t just shining. It was assaulting the ground.
Portugal isn’t alone. Western Europe is currently a pressure cooker.
In France, the heat has become a bureaucratic headache. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornua called his ministers together Thursday. They had to plan. How to stop forest fires. How to keep taps running. It wasn’t a drill.
Schools are the front line of this quiet crisis.
Imagine sitting inside a classroom at 53°C. That happened at a primary school in Souston. They kept the doors locked and the kids at home Thursday and Friday. Inhospitable is one word for it. Dangerous is another.
But exams go on. Always the exams.
The baccalaureate tests proceed despite the inferno. Education Minister Édouard Geffrroy told BFMTV the students were ready. They have a schedule. They expect results.
Is fairness really a metric you can test with a mercury stick?
Teachers aren’t so convinced. One complained on radio about bringing her own fan into the room. Another union survey claimed 78% of secondary schools hit over 30°C this week. Some teachers used screwdrivers just to force windows open because they stuck.
Seventeen departments are on orange alert. “Be very vigilant,” they say. Paris will hit 33°C Thursday, climbing to 34°C for the weekend. Police are restricting lower-emission cars to clear the air and lower speed limits. Single fares apply on transport. Try to get people out of the car. It works. Sometimes.
Even athletes feel the weight.
Jannik Sinner, the number one tennis player, was cruising at the French Open. Then he wasn’t. Dizziness. Lethargy. He pulled out. He claimed later it was nothing against the heat. It was just me. We believe you. We hope it helps. But the stadium was an oven.
Italy turned up the volume on the alert. A red alert. First time this year. Rome. Florence. Bologna. Brescia. Turin. They warned that even healthy people could get sick.
Madrid? Not officially a heatwave by local definition. Still hitting 35°C by the weekend. July weather in May. Does that sound right to you?
Spain, Germany, Switzerland. All hot. All uncomfortable.
Why is the air stuck? A “heat dome.” High pressure locks the warm air underneath like a lid on a pot. You can’t vent it. You just boil.
Science says climate change makes these domes stickier. Stronger. Europe warms by 0.56°C every decade. Over thirty years, that adds up. The extremes get worse. The records fall faster.
The UN dropped a note on Thursday. Global temps will stay at record levels this year. And for the next four.
The immediate cause is a “heat dome” – an area of high pressure that gets stuck.
So we wait for the weekend in Paris. For the rain that doesn’t come. For the dome to break.
