Europe Heatwave: Why 45°C In India Feels Different Than 35°C In Europe | FP Explains — Transcript

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1. 0:01On a single day this April, all 50 of
2. 0:03the hottest cities on the planet were in
3. 0:05India.
4. 0:06And yet, half a world away in Britain,
5. 0:08where the thermometer barely scraped
6. 0:0935°, people were collapsing, schools
7. 0:13were shutting, and trains were grinding
8. 0:14to a halt.
9. 0:16We are witnessing a relentless assault
10. 0:17on climate records.
11. 0:23Day after day, the numbers keep
12. 0:24climbing.
13. 0:25France and the UK both shattered their
14. 0:27highest June temperatures on record,
15. 0:29only to break them again the very next
16. 0:31day.
17. 0:32From Spain enduring its hottest
18. 0:33consecutive June days in history to
19. 0:35Switzerland and Germany tracking
20. 0:37unprecedented history-making highs, the
21. 0:39continent is rewriting its weather books
22. 0:41in real time.
23. 0:43How can a temperature that Indians
24. 0:44consider a standard summer afternoon
25. 0:46push Europe to the brink of a massive
26. 0:48humanitarian crisis?
27. 0:50Is 35° in Britain or Europe more
28. 0:53dangerous [music]
29. 0:54or rather different than 45° in Delhi?
30. 0:57Europe is right now living through one
31. 0:59of its deadliest early summer heat waves
32. 1:01on record. The World Health Organization
33. 1:02[music] estimates more than 1,300 excess
34. 1:05deaths across the continent since just
35. 1:07the 21st of June.
36. 1:09France has been the worst hit. Its
37. 1:11health authorities have recorded around
38. 1:131,000 excess deaths in a matter of days,
39. 1:15most of them elderly.
40. 1:17And officials warn that figures will
41. 1:19rise as deaths in homes and care
42. 1:21facilities are fully counted.
43. 1:23And even these numbers understate the
44. 1:25real cost. Back in the summer of 2022,
45. 1:27an estimated 61,000 Europeans died from
46. 1:30heat. And scientists later found that
47. 1:32more than half of these deaths were
48. 1:33driven by human-caused climate change.
49. 1:36Scientists at World Weather Attribution
50. 1:38noted that this kind of heat would have
51. 1:40been virtually impossible [music]
52. 1:42without climate change. And the
53. 1:43punishing nighttime temperatures are now
54. 1:46around 100 times more likely than they
55. 1:48were just two decades ago.
56. 1:50What's striking about 2026 is how early
57. 1:52it arrived. From late May, a vast heat
58. 1:55dome settled over Western Europe,
59. 1:57pushing temperatures 10 to 15° above
60. 1:59normal, the hottest May and spring ever
61. 2:01recorded across region.
62. 2:03Meteorologists point to a phenomena
63. 2:05known as Omega block.
64. 2:08This occurs when a massive high-pressure
65. 2:09system gets trapped between two
66. 2:10low-pressure systems, forming a shape
67. 2:13like Greek letter Omega.
68. 2:15This creates a literal heat dome. It
69. 2:18seals the region, blocks out clouds,
70. 2:20strips away wind, and allows solar
71. 2:22radiation to mercilessly bake the earth
72. 2:23below.
73. 2:24Driving temperatures up to 18° C above
74. 2:27seasonal normals.
75. 2:29Now, here's what confuses a lot of
76. 2:31people.
77. 2:32India routinely sees 45 or even 47°. So,
78. 2:36why is Europe's lower heat proving so
79. 2:38much more lethal?
80. 2:39Well, it all comes down to several
81. 2:41factors.
82. 2:43You need to understand that temperature
83. 2:44[music] alone does not determine heat
84. 2:45stress. The first and the biggest is
85. 2:47humidity. India's pre-season heat is
86. 2:50largely dry. Britain, ringed by the
87. 2:52Atlantic and the seas, is wet.
88. 2:55Your body's main cooling system is
89. 2:56sweat. As sweat evaporates off your
90. 2:58skin, it carries heat away.
91. 3:00But evaporation only works if the
92. 3:02surrounding air is dry enough to absorb
93. 3:04that moisture. In humid air, the sweat
94. 3:06just sits there, and the cooling [music]
95. 3:08fails.
96. 3:09That's why a muggy 35° in Britain can
97. 3:11stress the body harder than a dry 45° in
98. 3:14Rajasthan.
99. 3:16India's peak summer heat in May and
100. 3:17early June is notoriously dry. The air
101. 3:20has plenty of room to absorb your sweat,
102. 3:22cooling you down efficiently. However,
103. 3:24it is possible that if Indians visit
104. 3:26this time, they may feel the effect of
105. 3:28such temperatures themselves despite
106. 3:30being able to sustain higher
107. 3:31temperatures back home.
108. 3:32Scientists capture this with a wet bulb
109. 3:34temperature, and in this June's heat
110. 3:36wave, UK dew points hit around 22°
111. 3:40against single figures in 2022. That
112. 3:42humidity is what made it so deadly. If
113. 3:44you want to know more about the wet bulb
114. 3:46temperature, you can watch Firstpost's
115. 3:48explainer.
116. 3:49Second is architecture, housing, which
117. 3:51has evolved [music] in India to sustain
118. 3:53this temperature.
119. 3:54Homes feature cross ventilation, high
120. 3:56ceilings, shaded courtyards, and wide
121. 3:58access to ceiling fans or air coolers.
122. 4:01On the other hand, British homes are
123. 4:02built for the exact opposite.
124. 4:04For centuries, the enemy was biting
125. 4:06cold. UK housing stock is structurally
126. 4:09designed to act as a thermal battery,
127. 4:11using thick brick walls, heavy
128. 4:12insulation, and double-glazed windows to
129. 4:14trap heat inside.
130. 4:16When a heat wave hits, these houses
131. 4:18absorb the heat during long summer days
132. 4:20and refuse to let it go.
133. 4:23Third is air conditioning. Only about
134. 4:25one in five European homes has it,
135. 4:27roughly against 90% in the United
136. 4:28States.
137. 4:30In Britain, it's rarer still, almost
138. 4:32absent from [music] homes, schools, and
139. 4:33hospitals. So, when the heat hits, there
140. 4:35is simply nowhere to escape.
141. 4:38And fourth is acclimatization. People in
142. 4:40India have adapted, both physically and
143. 4:42in their daily habits, to [music]
144. 4:43extreme heat. Europeans haven't. Their
145. 4:46bodies, their routines, and their cities
146. 4:48are all caught off guard.
147. 4:50These extreme spikes happen suddenly
148. 4:52after weeks of cool weather, shocking
149. 4:54the human cardiovascular system before
150. 4:56it can adapt.
151. 4:57But make no mistake, none of this means
152. 4:59that India is safe. India's heat wave is
153. 5:01its own brutal emergency. This year,
154. 5:04temperatures across Delhi, Uttar
155. 5:05Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan ran between
156. 5:0745 to 48° C,
157. 5:09starting from April.
158. 5:11Dry heat waves in India are incredibly
159. 5:13dangerous, routinely claiming thousands
160. 5:15of lives annually, draining the ground
161. 5:16water, and melting asphalt.
162. 5:19So, what is the European Union doing
163. 5:21about it? The EU [music] is treating
164. 5:23this as a systemic emergency. In the
165. 5:25short term, governments have issued red
166. 5:27heat health alerts, opened public
167. 5:28cooling centers in cities like Paris,
168. 5:30Barcelona, Vienna, and London, closed
169. 5:32schools, and slowed trains to stop the
170. 5:34tracks from buckling. And beyond air
171. 5:36conditioning, cities are [music]
172. 5:37planting trees, adding green roofs,
173. 5:39expanding shade, and rewriting building
174. 5:41codes so that new homes are designed to
175. 5:43stay cool, not just warm.
176. 5:46>> The world moves fast. Power shifts.
177. 5:50Unexpected developments. Changing
178. 5:53alliances. Every day brings a new
179. 5:56[music] headline.
180. 5:57But headlines are only the beginning
181. 6:00because behind [music] every story there
182. 6:02is context. There are consequences and
183. 6:05there are questions worth asking.
184. 6:09Find the answers. [music] Understand the
185. 6:11story. Take on the world.
186. 6:15This is Him Kor Saroya for Firstpost
187. 6:17[music] Vantage.