Europe is living another summer in 2022 in which heat, drought and fires worry meteorologists and punish the population. While some records have not yet been broken —in Spain we reached 45.9°C now, against 47.6°C last year—, other marks are falling every day.
On Monday (1st), France’s meteorological service reported that July’s rainfall reached just 9.7 mm in the country, a drop of 84% compared to the average of the last 30 years. The drought is the second most severe since 1961, which forced French farmers to severely limit the use of water on crops and for animals – which still suffer due to the meager amount of green in the pasture.
On the River Rhine, which runs partially along the border between France and Germany, transport boats are working at a third of their capacity, since, if they were heavier, they would hit the bottom of the river with their hulls.
“We only have 12% of the rainfall we need,” French Environment Minister Christophe Bechu said on a TV show. “It’s a heat wave that increases the need for water and a drought that limits the water available, creating a vicious circle.”
England has also seen the southern and eastern regions of its territory break records for little rain during the months of July since the meteorological agency began operating in 1836. For the whole country, the Met Office added that the 23.1 mm 2022 rainfall is the driest July since 1935.
Of course, the drought is accompanied by astonishing temperature rises. England saw its thermometers hit 40°C for the first time since measurements began. Deaths directly or indirectly attributed to heat are numbered in the thousands; in Spain, they already exceed 2,000.
Meanwhile, contingency measures are being adopted, mainly in the western part of the continent, since August shows no signs of bringing refreshment. England is preparing to announce restrictions on the use of water, and the Netherlands has officially declared that the country is in scarcity, urging the population to start saving. The Dutch government has also formed a commission to study measures to help manage the remaining supply.
Spain, on the other hand, has just announced a series of measures, not only due to the heat, but also to the energy crisis that threatens Europe because of the Ukrainian War and the decrease in Russian gas supplies.
From now on, the air conditioning of any shop, public building, bar, restaurant and similar spaces cannot be set to less than 27°C. The limits extend until November, when the heating of the appliances will also not be able to produce heat above 19°C. In addition, stores must turn off the lights in the windows every night and keep the doors closed, so that the cold (or warm) air does not dissipate.
Hitler-aligned time zone
Spain is still in a peculiar situation due to its strange time zone. If the one aligned with the region to which the country belongs were adopted, the Spanish clock would follow those of England and Portugal, and the sun would set earlier.
But the country has been in the same zone as Central Europe since 1940, when dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975) announced that Spain would start following Berlin time, to please the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. At that time, Germany was at the height of World War II (1939-1945) and, with the end of the conflict, the measure was not revised.
This is the reason why Spaniards usually have lunch (from 1 pm) and dinner (not before 9 pm) late and their nightclubs do not open before midnight. It was an adjustment to the time they lived before the move, 82 years ago. For most tourists, however, the extra hour of sun translates to more heat in the summer.
Now and then this debate returns to Spanish politics, but according to historian Maximiliano Fuentes Codera, a professor at the University of Girona in Catalonia, a reversal to the geographic time zone seems difficult now.
“I think the fact that summer days last longer here than in other European countries became part of Spanish culture a few decades ago. And you know, tourism is one of Spain’s main industries,” he told Sheet.
When Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took over in 2018, he set up a group of experts to study the change to the original time, but the commission suggested that nothing happen: “After 80 years with this time, the Spanish population has adapted to it. and there is not enough reason to change it”.
The government of the Canary Islands — in fact, the only region with one hour less time in the country — even threatened to withdraw support for Sánchez if Spain reduced its time zone by one hour. One of the islands’ slogans is “one less in the Canaries”.
