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Warsaw: The guidebooks say I should stop to admire the mermaid statue in the heart of Warsaw’s old town during my morning walk, but I do not linger long.
I love the story of the Syrenka Warszawska, the little mermaid of Warsaw, who was rescued by a fisherman and swore to protect the city forevermore. I admire the statue, with its mermaid brandishing a sword and shield. But there is no way I am standing in the sun for more than a minute.
It is 28 degrees in the Polish capital at 8am. By the afternoon, it will reach 39 degrees. The European heatwave is scorching Poland after sending temperatures soaring in Britain, France, Germany and other parts of the continent. And emergency agencies are worried.
“Warning! Heat expected,” says an alert on my mobile phone. “Avoid the sun and strenuous activity.”
Full credit to the Polish authorities: the message is in English on my UK mobile. And I do as I’m told. In the narrow streets of the old town, where the buildings cast long shadows at this hour of the morning, I can walk in shade while I look for a coffee.
There are not many people on the streets. An elderly woman takes her dog for a walk. A jogger thumps past. I walk over to a man who has just climbed the steps from the park along the river. Piotr, an engineer, is visiting from his home in Bielsko-Biala, in the south of the country, and he can see the impact of climate change. “The sun will be like fire,” he says of the future.
He says it’s not just the summers that are changing – the winters are also warmer. Piotr tells me he remembers his primary school closing for two weeks in the 1970s because the winter was so harsh. Back then, he says, the snow could be 1.5 metres deep. He gestures with his hand to describe conditions in recent years: only 50 centimetres of snow, maybe less.
This has been a deadly heatwave across Europe, with the French public health agency saying there were about 1000 additional deaths in the country over just three days last week. Public Health France calculated the toll by comparing the usual daily death count with the higher numbers during the sharp rise in temperatures.
In Germany, the surface of an autobahn near Berlin crumbled from the heat. The country posted a record-high temperature of 41.7 degrees in the eastern district of Coschen on Sunday. In Hungary, the temperature hit 42 degrees. “All records have been broken,” said Prime Minister Peter Magyar. “Hungary has never experienced such extreme heat.”
In some ways, Europeans are now living in the sort of summer that is common for others. In Warsaw, people ask me if the conditions are like those in Australia. Given that the temperature hit 42.7 degrees in Canberra on January 28, it is a fair question.
What is so challenging in Europe is that the continent is not used to the heat. This means there is a huge debate about air-conditioning, which some oppose because it increases energy use. Many renting apartments built in the 19th century cannot install cooling even if they want to. In the beautiful old buildings of Paris, tenants swelter under zinc roofing.
“Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average,” World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.
The argument about how to adapt to climate change, and how to source energy for air-conditioning, will only intensify.
Since this is my first visit to Warsaw, I can’t tell whether the city is quieter than usual on this sizzling Sunday. During an afternoon walk at the peak of the heat, I see young people zipping past on hire bikes and scooters, unworried by the sun. I also see their pink shoulders.
At the Warsaw Uprising Museum, an essential stop, there is no sign that people are staying home. The rooms are crowded with visitors learning about the 1944 rebellion against the Nazi occupiers and the merciless destruction of the city afterwards.
Later, I check with an Australian I’ve met, Damien Stewart, to see how he fared in the heat. He has lived in Warsaw for several years and is so immersed in its history that he runs a company, Poland at War Tours, to share the stories of the past. He spent Sunday conducting a four-hour tour.
How did he recover? “I found my way to an air-conditioned Starbucks,” he said. He drank a litre of cold water and two espresso Frappuccinos, and stayed for two hours. I thought this was a wise move: after my visit to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, I also escaped the heat in a Starbucks.
In theory, Australians should be able to endure this kind of heatwave. We have experienced the heat Europeans are starting to discover. Sadly, the lesson is that the best way to survive the heat is to stay well out of it. Summer is changing, and Europe will have to adapt.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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