heat stress deadlier than hurricanes or floods

Watch out for early heatwaves. In Greece, three foreign tourists died in a week, three others are missing. Six hours of exposure to 35°C with 100% humidity is enough to kill a healthy person.

It’s hard to believe when we see the weather in much of France, but we’re expecting 37°C again this Tuesday, June 18 in Athens, with a feeling of 40°C. However, the thermometer has gone down compared to last week, when we recorded 42°C in the capital and up to 44°C in the Peloponnese.

Schools closed for two days, authorities asked businesses to favor teleworking, but some tourists still ventured onto the hiking trails. Three of them have already died there, victims of sunstroke or illness, including a Briton, doctor and small screen star. His body was found on June 9 on the island of Symi by a television crew who came to film the scene of his disappearance.

An American and two French women aged 63 and 74 are still wanted in the Cyclades. The first on Amorgos, the other two on Sikinos, which has less than 200 inhabitants. On Friday, one of the two women sent a message to the owner of her accommodation, explaining that she had fallen and was not feeling well. Since then, no more news.

Due to the heat, several tourist sites such as the Acropolis had to partially close: the doors remained closed from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. In themselves, there is nothing unusual about these closures. When temperature curves are at their highest, Greeks are now used to seeing their Minister of Culture appear on television and announce time restrictions, to protect workers and visitors. Except that normally this happens later. Last year, the first heatwave of the summer, certainly exceptional in its duration (two weeks), did not arrive until mid-July. This time, it is the earliest heat wave on record.

Other countries have also recorded deaths in recent weeks due to the heat: India, where it was over 47°C, Mexico which has reported around fifty deaths since March, Saudi Arabia, where the Ministry of Health reported more than 2,700 cases of“heat exhaustion” on the single day of June 16. At least 22 deaths have been reported by Jordanian, Iranian and Senegalese authorities.

It’s always worse when the humidity in the air prevents sweat from evaporating and the body from regulating its temperature: six hours of exposure to 35°C with a humidity level of 100% is enough to kill a healthy person. This “heat stress” is also much more deadly than hurricanes or floods or any extreme weather phenomenon. Some 500,000 people are victims each year, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which specifies that these official figures are very partial. This toll could actually be 30 times higher.