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European Heatwave 1
Wed Dec 24, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
It was the season of Europe's discontent. Never on record has blazing summer heat cooked the
continent so thoroughly as it did this year. How bad was it? Let's start with London. A
typical August day on the Thames barely gets up to room temperature, about 72 Fahrenheit.
This year, London saw the mercury above 85 degrees for days on end. On August 10, Heathrow
Airport hit 100.2 degrees, and the town of Brogdale sizzled at 101.3. This was the first day
in over 300 years of British weather-watching that the century mark had ever been topped.
Across the English Channel, the heat was even more fierce. Several countries set all-time
highs, including Switzerland, with an amazing 106. But what made this heat wave so
enormously tragic for Europe, was its duration. Temperature were far above normal, not just
for a day or two, but for most of a month. Paris saw more than two weeks with highs topping
95, as well as its warmest night ever, with a low of 78.
Some business and government offices shut down due to the lack of air conditioning. But
staying at home was a deadly option, especially in Paris, where buildings are made to retain
heat during the winter, not disperse it in the summer. Only after the heat wave was over did
we learn that at least 15,000 people had died in France. And thousands of others were killed
elsewhere in Europe in the summer of 2003.
Bob Henson brought us today's story. Tomorrow, Bob explores whether the body counts in Europe
might actually underestimate the true impact. The Weather Notebook is funded by The National
Science Foundation and Subaru, Driven by What's Inside.
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