For the fifth time this summer, Europe is sweating under an intense heat wave.
The signs of a persistently hot and exceptionally dry summer are everywhere. Brown, dusty patches have replaced verdant lawns in London’s parks. Major rivers like the Danube and the Rhine have retreated, exposing sandbars. The conditions have created a tinderbox for wildfires. Forests in Germany and in Bosnia and Herzegovina were ablaze on Friday, while firefighters were battling to save thousands of acres and hundreds of homes in Britain, France, Greece and Spain.
Weeks of relentless heat have tested the continent’s resolve, buckling train lines, shorting power grids and smashing records that had been set only recently. The combination of a “heat dome” phenomenon and the effects of climate change have left Europe wondering whether suffocating summers are the new norm.
