SYDNEY – Most regions of English live Heat wavewith temperatures expected to rise further to 42 degrees Celsius (107.6F).
People have been advised to avoid non-essential travel and many are working from home. Some schools have closed early or have chosen not to open at all, as the blistering heat puts pressure on health services.
But countries with generally higher temperatures have adapted their infrastructure and lifestyles to cope with the heat. A BBC correspondent explains how to live in some of these extremely hot countries.
In Australia, there is no threshold for extreme temperatures to force schools to close. Instead, schools aim to make students feel as safe and comfortable as possible. Policies vary from state to state. Many classrooms are air-conditioned, but others rely on disparate measures.
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These include using fans, changing uniform rules, creating spaces with better ventilation, and encouraging students to bring water bottles. Outside, students are advised to seek shade.
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Officials say gym class should be avoided in the middle of the day. New South Wales, for example, suggests scheduling exercises in the morning and swimming carnivals in the evening as examples of alternative approaches.
Staff are advised to pay attention to signs of heat stress. Parents can apply sunscreen to children before school and ensure they wear a hat, according to the advice advice.
But the story becomes different if a school is threatened by forest fires. As is known, hundreds of campuses were closed during the Australian Black Summer fires of 2019-20.
The maximum temperature in India’s capital, Delhi, is currently hovering around 38C – well below the peak of 49.2C we recorded in mid-May. But there really is no break. Light rainfall and high humidity took the city’s heat index – “the temperature that felt real” – to 56C on Monday (7/18/2022).
When the heat takes over, people are advised to drink plenty of fluids and stay indoors during the hottest part of the day. And those who have to go out with their own car or an air-conditioned taxi if they can afford it because most public transport is still simple and not air-conditioned.
However, over the past two decades, travel within the city has increased with the introduction of the Delhi Metro. With fully air-conditioned carriages and air-conditioned stations, it is the preferred mode of transport for city dwellers.
A spokesperson for Metro said the network was designed with the extreme nature of weather in mind, and in the past 20 years the system has not encountered any issues related to high temperatures.
As for the railway network – often described as the backbone of the Indian economy – it operates normally most of the time during the harsh summer. The railway tracks are laid with gaps between which allow the space to expand with heat when the temperature reaches the 40s.
And in Nigeria? The average temperature in most of Nigeria is around 34°C, so it is usually hotter than not. A comparative reaction to the heat wave that swept through Europe is that temperatures are dropping below 15°C here.
Here, there is no dedicated infrastructure built to deal with the extreme heat, and no public warnings.
However, when it is very hot in northern states like Sokoto and Borno between February and April before the rains arrive, people sleep outside to escape the heat trapped in the walls while others pour buckets of water on their mattresses before lying down on their bed. above.
But at dawn they are off again, the children to school and most of the adults to their farms in the 40°C heat that can last for days.
Meanwhile, Spaniards tend to get used to high summer temperatures, at least in the south and center of the country. Many businesses open in the morning, before a long break after lunch, and reopen in the afternoon.
This practice is not only due to the heat but makes the working day more bearable. Likewise, Spaniards’ tendency to socialize relatively late – often after dinner at around 10 p.m. – means they go out when the temperature isn’t too high.
According to a study carried out by the real estate portal idealista in 2021, 36% of homes in Spain have air conditioning. In the notoriously hot southern city of Seville, that percentage rises to 73%, but drops to just 1% in cooler places like the northern cities of Vitoria and Lugo.
