"It’s So Hot in Paris That They’re Drinking Water Instead of Wine"

"Parisians are forgoing the café terrace to spend long hours at the office, where at least there’s air conditioning."

"Paris is burning. It was 108 degrees in the French capital on Thursday—smashing the all-time record by a full four degrees. On Wednesday afternoon, electricity consumption had broken another record. Then the national weather site crashed. It’s down again today.

At the Fromager Marie-Anne Cantin on the Left Bank, the cheesemongers were sending customers home with ice. “Normally, we recommend taking cheese out of the fridge an hour before eating it,” a seller named Patricia told me. “Today I think a half-hour will do.”

It’s the second heat wave of the summer in western Europe—a stretch in June led the southern French town of Verargues to break the country’s all-time heat record with a temperature of 115 degrees. Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany also set all-time high temperatures on Thursday, and Cambridge, England, recorded a high of 100 degrees—just the second time that mark has ever been reached in the U.K."

Henry Grabar reports for Slate July 25, 2019.

SEE ALSO:

"Climate Records Fall As Europe Bakes In Heatwave" (Reuters)

"British Temperatures Hit A Record For The Month Of July: Met Office" (Reuters)

"Hot Weather Cuts French, German Nuclear Power Output" (Reuters)

"Paris Records Hottest Temperature Since Records Began" (Reuters)

Source: Slate, 07/26/2019