Here in Madrid, I have just been through the longest, hottest heatwave of my life. For more than a week, temperatures hovered near or at 40C. (For comparison: Britain’s all-time highest temperature is 38.7C.) At night we’d sleep with the fans on and windows open, choosing street noise over suffocation. The city became less productive and less fun: 10-minute journeys felt too long, the kids’ school closed in the afternoons and their football matches were cancelled. Vulnerable people died. Heatwaves in Spain now kill as many as 1,500 to 1,700 people every year.
Others fried with us. Heatwaves and drought hit much of western Europe and the US, where dozens of local weather stations registered record daily temperatures. In Nevada and Arizona, Lake Mead’s water levels sank to an all-time low, endangering drinking supplies for nearly 25 million Americans. It was the US’s worst heatwave since, well, May. The global rise in deaths from heat is projected to more than offset the fall in deaths from cold. With climate change making heatwaves ever more frequent, how will we cope? And which places won’t?
Rich countries have adapted gradually. In prewar New York summers, recalled the playwright Arthur Miller, families would sleep in their underwear on fire escapes or camp out in Central Park with their alarm clocks. Then came air-conditioning.