By Gloria Dickie — Reuters, Tuesday 2 August 2022
LONDON (Reuters) — Europe’s record-breaking heatwave last month saw England and Wales register nearly 1,700 extra deaths in just one week, early data shows, while Portugal and Spain counted another 1,700. The figures, which will likely change as records are updated, give the first indication of heat-related deaths when temperatures from London to Madrid hit nearly 40 degrees Celsius or higher. But the figures from July came nowhere near the 70,000 heat-related deaths during a European heatwave in 2003.
Situational factors matter significantly. The 2003 heatwave struck in the first two weeks of August, closing businesses, wiping out crops and drying up rivers. Of the nearly 15,000 people who died in France, more than 11,000 were over the age of 75. The peak coincided with the traditional holiday period, when families were on holiday, in some cases leaving elderly relatives behind. “A fair number of people said goodbye to grandma sitting in her house and went on vacation,” said Matthew Huber, a global expert on heat stress at Purdue University. Adaptation also plays a role: after the 2003 disaster, many European countries created heatwave action plans and began issuing early warnings. Almost 90% of US homes have air conditioning compared with just 20% of European households. People in poorer communities and the homeless are at higher risk — during last year’s heatwave in Phoenix, Arizona, 130 of the 339 people who died were homeless. People who live in warm-weather countries typically acclimate to high heat over time, so the temperature at which people start to die from heat-related illness varies by location.