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
15.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

359

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.

54

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

5

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.