Paris heat wave 'kills 100'

The temperatures in Paris have reached 40 C (104 F) for a few days and people are dropping like flies. It's been that temp and higher here for 3 months, but no one has died. I remember back a few years ago when it was close to 120F in Texas and 120 or so people died, but 104F? I don't know anything about Paris - never been there, but do they not have A/C in Paris? I don't mean to sound apathetic about the issue. It's horrible that that many people have died from the temperatures. But how could 104F be considered a 'catastrophe' in a city such as Paris when it's a regular phenomenon many many other places around the world?

- trs

It's been around 100F here as well. The problem is that it's not usual temperatures for around here.
An example would be the trains. The tracks were laid with enough gaps to cope with the expansion of the average summer but since it's so hot they're worried about buckling. That's what Railtrack say anyway.

Also not many places have A/C as we don't normally need it. So I'm not surprised really.

I think its as simple as reaction to heat being relative to what you're used to. I was thinking about this earlier in the other "Sweden" thread because it routinely gets over 100F here in Texas during the summer. Yet we all complain a bit when it hits temps like 104 and then just go on. On the flip side of the coin I remember a swimming pool at a family reunion that I wouldn't touch because it was unreasonably cold. A cousin of mine from New England jumped right in and told me it was warmer than he was used to. I suppose our bodies just adapt to our environment.

I suppose our bodies just adapt to our environment.

It makes you think about how fragile we are as lifeforms.

I mean, it seems to us that temperature swings from way below freezing all the way up to 100F is a huge amount. But in the grand scheme of things, that's a pretty narrow range. It's kind of amazing that our planet has a mild enough climate to keep its populated zones within such a narrow range.

a couple co-workers and i were discussing that over breakfast this morning. watching cnn they were talking about 97 degree killer heat. we just laughed at them and expressed our disbelief. its slated to reach 106 every other day here. we bitch "man its gonna get hot today" and carry on. not that im making light of their misfortunes, but i am shocked.

The only place I've got a/c is my car (well, one of them), and while a lot of cars come with it, it's still regarded as something of a "luxury" option.

*VERY* few people have a/c in their houses. Offices, some shops and server rooms, yes, houses, no. Our house is brick/breeze block with polystyrene cavity wall insulation, roof insulation and double glazing! It does stay a little cooler than outside but it does hold the heat in the evenings, even with all the windows open.

I've found I need to drink a LOT more than usual - normally at work I drink a couple of cups of tea in the morning and a couple glasses of squash in the afternoon, but the past week I've probably had 6+ glasses of squash every day.

Gareth

squash

That's a new one on me:

sweetened citrus fruit juice often served with added soda water

Sounds tasty, though.

Fitting one of these:

into a glass does not.

*VERY* few people have a/c in their houses.

How about in public places? I rememer the resolution they came to during the Texas "killer heatwave" was to send the elderly without a/c in their homes to the museum, library, or post office to just "hang out" until it was safe to return home.

- trs

Yeah I always heard water is good for you when you're dehydrated...

I thought squash juice was kind of weird... Thanks for the clarification!

I grew up in AZ, don't miss the "dry heat," but on Friday in Austin we hit 110F. And humid, 50%+!!! With the unstable atmosphere from the Gulf of Mexico, we got some kick ass thunderstorms and a microburst in SOuth Austin that knocked out the power in the office for hours.
I love severe weather, and this whole weekend has been full of it in Central Texas! Last night it hit in North Austin, trees downed, roofs missing, etc. I'll love it until it hits my house, at least... Oh hail sucks, though....

I think the thing to remember is that, if the planet didn't have such a nice comfort zone, then we wouldn't be here in the first place.. Like all of the other planets we know of (except possibly one or two recent far away discoveries).

Cheers

sweetened citrus fruit juice often served with added soda water

It's kinda slang for any watered down fruit juice, usually synthentic with lots of added sugar (or saccharin for the *really* cheap stuff). The quality stuff might even have real fruit!!!

That picture looks like Gourds, which are sadly inedible. I grew them when I was younger, and gave them to people to sell at village fetes etc. for decoration.

Gareth

That picture looks like Gourds

Do you not have the vegetable squash in the UK? I suppose it's possible that they're indigenous to North America only, but I didn't think so. The common varieties are butternut squash, acorn squash, and zucchini (the latter would imply some European influence), but there are others as well. They look like gourds, but are softer and edible. Often delicious sliced and grilled, though I imagine kids would claim otherwise.

As a transplanted resident of Paris from Houston, I'd say it's a few things. No one here is used to it, many folks don't have air conditioning, and buildings don't seem to be designed with ventilation in mind. Even buildings that do have air conditioning can't keep up.

I'd also say that Parisiens spend more time walking outside than anyone did in Houston. When it got above 100 in Houston, everyone hunkered down inside until the sun went down. It only takes one time getting sun stroke to learn.

Here they don't get that lesson on a yearly basis. They keep on going, get dehydrated, and then fall over.

In reply to:

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Do you not have the vegetable squash in the UK?

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The only time I've seen them in the UK was when my ex-flatmate's mad American girlfriend would buy them from some obscure back street vegetable shop (no doubt run by a strange long-haired chinese man with a milky eye).

Do you not have the vegetable squash in the UK? I suppose it's possible that they're indigenous to North America only, but I didn't think so.

I don't think any of the squashes are native to the UK (or even grown here), but the supermarkets here have been selling them for the last few years.

Actually, doing a little digging it looks like courgettes (zucchini in the US) and marrows are in fact squashes, so we have lots of native squashes...

There are butternut squashes in every supermarket I visit in the UK....

Heatwave Claims First Frostbite Victim

un... believable.

I wonder what Lewis Black would say about that guy. **anurism**

- trs

Can't say I ever noticed them, but then again, it's not like I keep an eye out....

Actually, doing a little digging it looks like courgettes (zucchini in the US) and marrows are in fact squashes, so we have lots of native squashes...

Courgettes and marrows (which are the same plant, just harvested at different stages) are the only squashes widely grown in the UK, but they aren't native; they come from the Americas. Butternut squashes are available everywhere but I don't think they're locally grown. Other vegetable squashes are very rarely seen.

Peter

Don't forget pumpkins. I've got one in the garage that has "make me into pumpkin wine" written all over it.

Gareth

Most of these things we call pumpkins. And we eat them, often! Any time I have a meat and three veg type of meal, you can bet that one of the vegs will be pumpkin. Butternut is definitely a variety of pumpkin, not squash, by Australian terminology. Over here squashes are (almost ?) exclusively teeny little things, not more than about 15 cm in any dimension. I'm told that zucchini and pumpkin are actually the same species though, and if you plant seeds collected from a pumpkin plant that was next to a zucchini plant, then you get some very strange fruit from that plant!

Richard.

Well, if I ever get anything courgette-like, or cucumber-like or anything like that in a meal or sandwich I avoid it. Can't think of any food less appealing. Except maybe Aubergine.

Why do shops sell sandwiches labelled as Cheese and Ham which actually also contain green stuff like lettuce and cucumber? The label should include those things, so I could go straight for the basic sandwiches, and probably pay less as I'm going for fewer ingredients.

[/rant]

It's been a long day...

I'm told that zucchini and pumpkin are actually the same species though, and if you plant seeds collected from a pumpkin plant that was next to a zucchini plant, then you get some very strange fruit from that plant!

Yes. Zucchini and most of the squashes (crookneck etc) known in the US as "summer squash" are all cultivars of the same species, Cucurbita pepo -- much in the same way that all domesticated dog varieties are classed as the same species. Interbreed them and you get weird stuff. A couple of closely-related Cucurbita species produce the winter squashes and the orange Halloween-style pumpkins. The melon, watermelon, and cucumber are less closely-related, but still in the same family, Cucurbitaceae.

It seems ages since we had a good food thread!

Peter

I seem to remember a film in my youth called "Water melon man", about a white guy who turned Afro-Carribean in the night.

I can't believe that nobody has made the "out of your Gourds" joke yet.

Oops.

I just got back from Helsinki, Finland. This is one of (if not the) leading high-tech country in the world. Despite that, the hospital where my mother was recovering from a bypass operation didn't have A/C. And this was an expensive, private clinic. Unfortunately the heat wave hit Helsinki too