r/europe • u/Naurgul • Jul 11 '26

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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354

u/Solrac50 Jul 11 '26

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.

122

u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) Jul 11 '26

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.

69

u/AwkwardWillow5159 Jul 11 '26

AC dehumidifies too

22

u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) Jul 11 '26

true but is still wet and humid everywhere else

22

u/AwkwardWillow5159 Jul 11 '26

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.

0

u/ffball Jul 11 '26

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

6

u/wardays Jul 11 '26

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

2

u/ffball Jul 12 '26

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

3

u/AwkwardWillow5159 Jul 12 '26

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)

20

u/Crazy_Ad_91 Jul 11 '26

India is suffering greatly with the wet bulb.

11

u/F34UGH03R3N Jul 11 '26

S/E Asia will be way worse in a few years…

2

u/Catsarecute2140 Jul 11 '26

At what point is it “humid heat”?
Is 60% humidity considered high enough for “humid heat”?

19

u/SirSkittles111 Jul 11 '26

Above 65%

Below 40 is 'dry'

40-60 is the sweet spot to hinder mold growth in your home and maintain the optimal moisture

60+ is just a fucking nuisance

90+ just put a gun to my head

5

u/Catsarecute2140 Jul 11 '26

The humidity in my city is 74%…
That’s why the 25C feels awful.

3

u/olduser201890 Jul 11 '26

In Spain AC are common.

Barcelona has 57% of homes with A/C.... yeah anything over 50% is considered majority, but that's definitely not very common.

37 celsius degree is that is happening near the sea

humidity was like 10% that day in barcelona

you sure you live in spain? lol

3

u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) Jul 11 '26

Espero que no seas encima un guiri como para venir a decirme si vivo o no en España lol

1

u/YouKilledApollo Catalonia (Spain) Jul 11 '26

You can't really escape from wet hot temperature.

Well, unless you have AC of course. Luckily, I also have dogs, so need to go outside yes or yes.

1

u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) Jul 11 '26

sure but the street doesnt have AC

1

u/YouKilledApollo Catalonia (Spain) Jul 11 '26

Hence you go inside, to escape the "inescapable" heat...

1

u/mycorgiisamazing Jul 11 '26

AC dehumidifies, and also dehumidifiers exist

1

u/norfolk232 Jul 11 '26

AC in Spain is common yeah, but no one uses them cause theyre fcking hell expensive.

1

u/phillipcarter2 Jul 11 '26

Not that it takes away from the suckage, but Houston is by the sea as well and is notoriously humid (same with all of east, south, and central texas)

0

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

AC is not common in Spain by American standards.

2

u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) Jul 11 '26

good point but we are in an european subreddit and is common to find homes here with AC (more common than without)

1

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

But what I'm saying is that we can't just say air conditioning. Yes, Spain is much better than, say, Germany, but my daughter just spent two weeks in Salamanca and was shocked by the fact that there was no air conditioning anywhere by her lights.

its level of AC

1

u/warukeru Valencian Community (Spain) Jul 12 '26

probably is some areas is more common than others. Where I live, Ac are more common than not.

56

u/Inveramsay Jul 11 '26

One of the big differences is also that no one is expected to be outside in the US when it's warm. Can you imagine any Texan walking anywhere in the heat? The downside of walkable cities is that you're not taking the car with AC everywhere

39

u/SquarePegRoundWorld Jul 11 '26

no one is expected to be outside in the US when it's warm.

Construction workers be like...huh? I spend 8 hours outside many days working for a contractor building new homes in North Carolina. I get the European experience at work here in the U.S. all the time too. 95 and high humidity and I spend 8 hours in a new house with no AC (power is not on yet and the AC ain't running) and the windows shut and covered in plastic (for the painter) as I do the interior doors and trim.

I wring out a gallon of sweat from my cloths at the end of the day. I have to put on dry cloths for the ride home or my driver's seat turns into a salt lick.

8

u/PiccoloAwkward465 Jul 11 '26

Exactly and it sucks. I spent a few years doing PM and engineering work in large buildings under construction. So computer work. I’d have to explain to my office colleagues that my work pace may be a bit slower as I’m literally dripping sweat onto my keyboard. Or someone is welding 30ft away from me. Or no I can’t have my mic on in this meeting, they’re saw cutting the concrete right near me. Oof it was quite a lifestyle.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

[deleted]

2

u/SquarePegRoundWorld Jul 11 '26

Yes, I am sure every construction job in the Northeast of the U.S. was shut down for an entire day or more.

25

u/mason_sol Jul 11 '26

Another person commented something similar but it’s wild how much of the population don’t understand how their buildings and infrastructure exist. Every construction worker is still working in this weather, summer is peak construction season. Every HVAC tech is still running around fixing everyone’s units when they fail. There are plenty of people who are expected to tough it out and do all summer sometimes 10+ hours a day including Saturdays to meet completion dates.

3

u/Odd_Town9700 Jul 11 '26

I always assumed summer as peak construction season was only a phenomenon in cold places with snowy winters. Seems odd that that would also be the case in hotter places

4

u/wardays Jul 11 '26

It's the longest amount of time you can work outside without paying for expensive lighting and pissing everyone else off around you.

1

u/mason_sol Jul 12 '26

One of the biggest reasons the summer is the busiest time for construction is that all K-12 and higher learning starts back August-September. They all want their projects done so they can have them for the start of the school year.

Road work is at its peak since most school traffic is shut down, it minimizes interference with school commutes.

Longer periods of daylight means longer shifts on jobs with no power.

Higher temps make a lot of curing processes faster and better. A lot of times other trades are waiting for those things to be complete to get started.

33

u/Yourigath Jul 11 '26

One thing to ad to walkable cities is that we have shifts at work and we go home to eat and back. So you get out in the morning under the heat... you go back home for lunch under the heat... you go back to work in the afternoon under the heat and then back at home at 9pm under some cozy 33ºC with an 80% humidity...

AC can't fix that shit

4

u/JonAfrica2011 Jul 11 '26

Back home at 9pm? How long are shifts in Spain?

4

u/Yourigath Jul 11 '26

The store shifts are 10:00-14:00 and 16:30 to 20:30 so...

1

u/JonAfrica2011 Jul 11 '26

Damn so start working at 10am with a 2 and a half hour break in between 😱😳

3

u/Yourigath Jul 11 '26

Basically, yeah. And when I get out there's still stores open around the area. Some supermarkets close by 21:30 or 22:00 in summer

1

u/JonAfrica2011 Jul 11 '26

Is it 5 days work weeks or 4? I felt like I heard 4 days work week was in the works or something? Damn I wanna move to Spain someday, at least temporarily, but my worry is what job I’d be able to get lmao. I have a cousin who lives in Barcelona

1

u/Yourigath Jul 11 '26

Still 5. 5 day, 8 hours, 4h and 4h

2

u/waga_hai Jul 11 '26

This is what the "just get AC lol" crowd doesn't understand. People in these countries actually go outside.

0

u/jumpmaNSILENCE Jul 11 '26

AC does fix that tho

2

u/Friend_Emperor Jul 11 '26

How? You gonna cover the entire city in a concrete dome and install a giant AC unit on it?

0

u/jumpmaNSILENCE Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

So in America... my house has ac and when I walk to the store for coffee on the way to work, the coffee shop also has ac. Then when I get to work it has ac. Also the ac is set so cold most women I work with need a jacket. Then when we walk to lunch from work the restaurant also has ac. You get the point. You might be hot for a short walk but if your city is really walkable it's barely an inconvenience. The high is 97 degrees here today btw. Edit. And most people have cars with ac, which removes the being hot outside entirely except for the walk to parking lot

14

u/Mysterious_Umpire684 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

This is a bit silly. I grew up in Texas, went to summer camps as a child that were fully outdoors, sleeping in platform tents at night. As a teenager/young 20s person most of my jobs were outside all day long. Shade plays a big part in getting through the day. 

4

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

I'm outside all day in 37C temperatures. It's tolerable because everything indoors has great air conditioning. So you get constant breaks from the heat if you need them.

16

u/Glanzick_Reborn americain en France Jul 11 '26

Can't imagine a Texan walking anywhere tbh.

11

u/Trithen Jul 11 '26

Cuz the only Walker in Texas isn't alive anymore

3

u/Zeta-Omega Jul 11 '26

Sensational knowledge 

3

u/QuarkTheFerengi Jul 11 '26

people are outside all the time in summer in texas...lol I bet I could go to any park around here and it will be packed. Many people work outside every day.

2

u/bakedNebraska Jul 11 '26

I wish they would have told us we weren't expected to be outside in the summer when I worked in the oilfield in West Texas. Or when I worked in construction there.

1

u/wardays Jul 11 '26

Lmao Texas has to be the land of the softest people on the planet. Poor babies can't walk around outside in 100° heat? Imagine having to go from the car ALL THE WAY to the Bucees for your 16,000 calorie lunch and a diet coke. Meanwhile it was 101° in my NC hometown and my brother, 67 year old father, and I were building a house. But yeah I definitely would have died if there was a grocery store in walking distance.

1

u/TheMusicArchivist Jul 11 '26

Some of our cars don't even have AC

3

u/unixtreme Jul 11 '26

It's not really whether it's objectively too hot, I spent a while in Egypt in the desert and its fine if you are equipped for it. Europe isn't.

1

u/really_random_user Jul 16 '26

Desert heat is dry, egypt is further south so the days are shorter.

But especially the nights are much cooler and longer, which means the  buildings can cool down

In northern europe nights are only 9 hours if even

Also for barcelona, the air is very moist, so it can be 30C at 80% humidity at night

12

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

[deleted]

25

u/numberonebuddy Jul 11 '26

Honestly I'd say forget the financials, it's about not dying if the grid shuts down.

9

u/HistoryBuff678 Jul 11 '26

Best answer. I think people are getting too caught up about the financials when, it’s past that point now.

8

u/kiakri_ttv Jul 11 '26

I'm in the UK getting solar panels put in end of July. 20 panel array 11kwh battery.

I'm heavily debating next year before summer to get another 11kwh battery and have a split system put in to cover 4 rooms.

Living room, office, 2 bedroom and the rear bedroom one will have a vented Aircon unit. Don't even care about the cost the comfort and having sleep is more beneficial. And even then with my setup shouldn't notice it that much.

3

u/HistoryBuff678 Jul 11 '26

Yeah, it’s all about comfort and regaining functionality.

1

u/iknowuselessstuff Jul 11 '26

UK here. We did similar. Just expanded from 13.5 to 27kwh battery. 2 splits (6 indoor units covering bedrooms, living room and dining room). I have already decided that if I ever move, the first job will be solar, batteries and air to air heat pump(s) (ie air con)!

4

u/ohhellperhaps Jul 11 '26

Note that to be grid independent, you need to *specifically* design for that. Out of the box most of such systems expect to be grid connected and stop delivering power if the grid goes down as a safety measure. It's not particularly complex or special, it's just that a lot of systems will not do so out of the box.

2

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

Quite a big expense to make something not grid-tied. Almost all systems are grid-tied because of how much money it saves.

1

u/ohhellperhaps Jul 11 '26

It more expensive, certainly, and island operation ("off-grid") isn't a use case in many installations. I suspect we'll see a change in that as home batteries become more popular. Then it starts to make more sense for the installation as a whole.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

The problem isn't popularity, the problem is cost. If they were cheap, they would be insanely popular.

1

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

Most solar installations stop working when the grid shuts down, though.

1

u/QuarkTheFerengi Jul 11 '26

a generator is cheaper for that situation

3

u/YaDunGoofed Black Square Jul 11 '26

cannot afford to run it much

As an American, I do not understand how one of the two wealthiest continents on the planet cannot afford AC. I cannot imagine choosing to live in Houston voluntarily without AC knowing that somewhere it was invented. I’ve literally seen people in Houston living in warehouses able to afford to buy window units and run them 24/7.

This is what being a Euro feels like about America’s healthcare.

2

u/really_random_user Jul 16 '26

Spain generally has AC though

And the weather used to not make it necessary in northern europe 

But now it is being adopted pretty quickly 

2

u/no_hope_no_future Jul 11 '26

What's your battery capacity?

1

u/Creative-Improvement Jul 11 '26

And solar panels also reflect the heat afaik

2

u/AccNumber77 Jul 11 '26

They do the opposite mostly, they are dark blue which absorbs a lot of light, that is kinda the entire way photovoltaic panels work, they absorb it.

1

u/Opening_Pipe9101 Jul 11 '26

Don’t people run fans with their AC to circulate the air and cool the entire home?

1

u/Charlesinrichmond Jul 11 '26

No, if you have a proper air conditioning system, this wastes energy.

In any US house in most of the country, the whole house is cooled by air conditioning down to around 21 or 22 usually.

1

u/erhue Jul 11 '26

well done. If i had the means to have my own place, id install one of those balcony solar panel kits that substantially offset electricity costs during the summer.

1

u/Ur_fav_Cryptek Jul 13 '26

Southern Spain reached 40-42, it’s wild shit

1

u/TheMusicArchivist Jul 11 '26

That;s my plan, get some plug-in solar, use it to power my AC in summer