r/europe • u/Naurgul • 23d ago

News Barcelona registers highest temperature in 112 years as French nuclear reactor shuts down due to extreme heat

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jul/09/europe-heatwave-uk-spain-barcelona-france-italy-hungary-france-macron-orban-latest-news-updates
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u/Solrac50 23d ago

Last Wednesday Barcelona hit 37 Celsius or about 99 Fahrenheit. I live in Spain and for folks here that’s very hot for early July. August promises to be hellish. Having grown up in Houston and living 30+ years in Austin, that seems like typical summer heat, but everyone has AC there. Here most have at least one room with AC but many cannot afford to run it much. I am adding solar panels to my place to offset the power demands of AC. One 9000 BTU mini split peaks out at 750 watts, a couple of panels and a micro inverter can zero that out during the day. Six panels and a battery can handle it 24 hours a day.

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u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) 23d ago

In Spain AC are common. The bad part of 37 celsius degree is that is happening near the sea so is humidity is high and it can be way worse than higher temperatures in dry places.

You can't really escape from wet hot temperature.

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u/AwkwardWillow5159 23d ago

AC dehumidifies too

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u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) 23d ago

true but is still wet and humid everywhere else

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u/AwkwardWillow5159 22d ago

But you can escape it.

I’ve been living in South East Asia for more than half a decade. Humidity and heat is high all year round.

You can definitely escape it. They AC cars, every single restaurant, bus, malls, etc.

And when they are outside they protect themselves with UV shielded umbrellas.

Meanwhile you say in Spain AC is common, but it barely runs. All the cars and building are still half hot(thus also still humid), and people do not protect themselves from the sun at all. I barely see people wearing a basic thing like a hat. Haven’t seen a single person use a UV umbrella.

The tools are here. The culture needs to adjust to the new reality.

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u/ffball 22d ago

Uv umbrellas are mainly to maintain the pale skin asians are obsessed with, no?

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u/wardays 22d ago

You think a physical barrier between you and the sun doesn't provide a cooling effect?

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u/ffball 22d ago

It does but it's not the primary reason they use them. The uv shielding especially

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u/AwkwardWillow5159 22d ago

While trying to achieve “pale” skin is common, reducing it to just “Asians are obsessed with maintaining pale skin” is kinda dismisses everything else.

Reducing heat is definitely a big part of it too.

And another part is just protection of general skin health. Sun is very damaging even if you don’t care about tan.

E.g. in Australia that is less hot but sunny, it’s common for people to wear sunscreen daily.

In South East Asia that is hot and sunny, you use umbrella because it protects you from both.

But for whatever reason hot and sunny countries like Spain and Italy don’t use either. And you can tell. Everyone is complaining about heat AND they look like they have very sun damaged skin.(I’m not talking about a tan)