Heatwave in France / Belgium.

Solair

I am based in Belgium at the moment and we are experiencing a serious heatwave and record temperatures for August.

It was over 36ºC in Brussels this afternoon and it's currently 27ºC after midnight. We are expecting 38ºC tomorrow!

France is even hotter with large parts of central France getting up to 40ºC and even Paris was sweltering.

I just thought it would be interesting to start a thread on it as we have had pretty strange weather patterns in Northern and Northwestern Europe over the last few months with unseasonably cool wet weather.

What's driving this sudden change?

NIMAN

The heat of the sun was pretty intense in NW Ireland too today, although obviously not as warm as you are getting.

Forecasts on TV said it would be around 20C, my thermometer (not a top quality one) was reading 26C in the shade, and 40C in the sun.

For me it felt like the warmest day of the summer by far, in terms of heat intensity.

Solair

These temperatures are unusual for the Benelux region and nothing's really setup to deal with them so it's pretty unpleasant!

I suspect 2012 could be a good year for French wine though. A wet summer followed by a hot dry ripening season usually produces excellent grapes... Or, so I am led to believe.

Su Campu

NIMAN wrote: »

The heat of the sun was pretty intense in NW Ireland too today, although obviously not as warm as you are getting.

Forecasts on TV said it would be around 20C, my thermometer (not a top quality one) was reading 26C in the shade, and 40C in the sun.

For me it felt like the warmest day of the summer by far, in terms of heat intensity.

It did only get up to 20-22 C in the NW yesterday, your thermometer was reading high, probably due to it being in a garden or something.


Max on Saturday:
Finner 21.7
Claremorris 21.6
Knock 20.1
Belmullet 20.0

Solair

It was so hot yesterday in Belgium that we actually lost mobile phone services as a data centre melted down !
It just shows how the infrastructure isn't designed to cope with close to 40ºC

CelticRambler

42.3°C just up the road from me in Central France* yesterday - hottest place in the country and only 0.5°C less than the highest ever August temp anywhere in France. It was still hovering around 35°C at 9.30pm when we launched into a three-hour French céilí ... :cool:

(* Montgivray, Dépt 36 - Indre)

Mountainsandh

Oh dear, my sister is near Roanne, and they've a one year old baby, 39C today, hope they'll be ok.
My other sister and Mum are Montelimar area, which strangely this time seems cooler today (36C)
At least near Montelimar they all have pools and the AC, but up by Roanne most people don't. It must be hell, no getting out of your shuttered and fanned house in that situation.

Solair

That's the issue here in Belgium - the buildings don't even have shutters in most cases. Architecturally, it's not much different to Ireland and certainly not setup for high temps and air conditioning's a bit of a rarity too, even in commercial spaces.

Darwin

Not as hot in Nice, about 32c but very humid giving a real feel of around 39c. Have no A/C - clothes absolutely stuck to me. Water restrictions in place at the moment.

Mountainsandh

...scary fire weather down there so.

I see what you mean Solair, I grew up in Lyon, and although we used to have very high temperatures, as I was growing up, there were very few who had air conditioning, and even the shops didn't have it at the time. I remember nights having to spray myself and all over the sheet/mattress with water to try and get some sleep.
At least we always had shutters though, shutters closed all day till 6pm, and all messages done before 10 am or after 5/6pm during the summer, that was the way to cope.

Very scary for older folks as well, I'm lucky my grandfather (89) is in an air-conditioned flat in Montelimar.

Coles

Thankfully it's got a long way to go before it gets as severe as 2003. Wiki Link to the 2003 Heatwave

Solair

It's a chilly 23-24ºC here in Belgium now!

Mountainsandh

that's not nice to come and tease

we had a bit of an "event" yesterday, but it's all over now

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2012/08/22/astronomy-ireland-rare-passing-of-the-sun-visible-over-the-country-today/

bcmf

Last Friday we were in the Vendee (in the theme park Le Puy Du Fou) and the temps certainly exceeded 40c. I saw a temp gauge outside a shop at about midday and it read 41. At about midnight when we were leaving the temp in the car read 27c.
The drive down to Bordeaux was another seriously hot day with the temp gauge in the car reading n outside temp of 40c.
Down nearer the coast now and its certainly a lot cooler.

Solair

It's significantly cooler in Brussels now (18ºC) and quite overcast.
Time to trade-in the shorts for a jumper and keep the umbrella on stand-by.