Europe's heatwave exposes more than rising temperatures

One of the lessons I learned after moving to Brussels one year ago was that Europeans and Chinese often mean very different things when they say "summer".

Back in China, summer usually means air conditioners humming almost everywhere, namely in apartments, offices, shopping malls, restaurants and even university dormitories. Here in Europe, however, summer often means opening the windows, pulling down the shutters and praying for a breeze.

Most years, that strategy works, but not this week, as Western Europe has just experienced a record-high heatwave.

France recorded one of the hottest days in its history, with the national average temperature reaching around 30 degrees Celcius and many cities exceeding 40 degrees. Southern England saw its hottest June day in decades, while Spain continued to endure temperatures above 40 degrees. Even cities such as Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin, traditionally known for relatively mild summers, found themselves under exceptional heat stress.

Fountains, usually places where tourists stop briefly to take photographs, suddenly became public cooling centers. Children splashed in the water while adults sat along the edges, trying to catch every bit of spray drifting through the air. The cooling effect was limited, but it was free, and during a heatwave, that alone was enough to attract crowds.

Shopping malls and supermarkets also became unofficial shelters. Many supermarkets maintain lower temperatures to preserve meat, dairy products and frozen food. During the hottest afternoons, benches inside shopping centers were occupied not only by shoppers but also by people who simply wanted to escape the heat for a while.

In one sense, the big air conditioners are doing double duty by keeping frozen meat fresh while cooling living meat, or us human beings, at the same time.

Even the metro became a refuge. In several cities, I noticed people riding the subway outside rush hour with no apparent destination. They simply stayed on until the end of the line, switched platforms and rode back again. The purpose was obvious: enjoy air conditioning without paying for coffee or entering a shopping mall.

In China, retirees sometimes ride buses to pass the time. In Europe this summer, even young people appeared happy to spend an afternoon inside an air-conditioned metro carriage.