巴黎冲上四十度：这个夏天，欧洲为什么这么热？

Today we'll talk about a big event that's happening right now.

Recently, all of Western Europe has 'exploded' with heat.

What we're talking about is

a very intense heatwave.

A heatwave is high temperatures lasting many days in a row.

Not hot for one day,

but hot for over a week, or even longer.

This heatwave has covered many countries.

France, Spain, Portugal,

Italy, the UK, Germany — all hit.

Let's look at a few numbers,

and you'll see how extreme it is.

In France, this year,

Paris's temperature

is expected, for the first time,

to exceed forty degrees in June.

Mind you, Paris's summers are usually

very comfortable.

And in Spain and Portugal,

in some places,

the temperature may hit forty-five degrees.

Italy isn't doing any better either —

even Florence

might reach forty degrees.

So here's the question:

why is Europe

so hot this year?

Behind this is one key cause,

called in meteorology a 'heat lid',

and in English there's a more vivid term,

called a 'heat dome'.

Let me give you a metaphor.

You can imagine it

as a giant pot

turned upside down over the sky.

Normally,

the air in the sky flows.

Hot air rises, cool air descends,

exchanging with each other.

But right now,

a huge mass of dry, hot high pressure

has firmly parked over Western Europe,

and for many days, it won't budge.

It's like that big pot,

pressing the heat down hard,

trapping it near the ground.

The sun bakes it every day,

and the temperature inside the pot

climbs higher day by day,

unable to escape.

What's worse,

this round's hot air

is largely from North Africa,

that is, the Sahara Desert,

drifting over.

Already hot, then trapped under the pot,

the two stacking together

have produced the current

deadly high heat.

Speaking of 'deadly',

this is no exaggeration.

High heat can kill people.

Especially the elderly, children,

and people who are already ill.

Their bodies

struggle to regulate such extreme temperatures.

In just last month's wave of heat,

in Spain, one country,

more than a hundred people

died because of the high heat.

France also had several deaths.

Behind these numbers

are individual, living people.

Facing the heat, governments of every country

have also sounded the alarm.

Some issued red alerts,

reminding everyone not to go out at midday if possible;

some opened public cooling spots,

giving people without AC a place to go;

and others

went specifically to care for elderly people living alone.

But more worthy of our vigilance

than the heatwave itself

is the big trend behind it.

Scientists almost unanimously agree:

heatwaves like this — early, strong, and long —

are becoming a 'new normal'.

In other words,

extreme heat that used to come once in decades

may, in the future, come every few years,

or even every year.

And the root of all this

points to one word:

climate change.

Our planet

is getting warmer year by year.

Finally, let's think together.

The phrase 'global warming',

we've heard for many years,

heard it until we're a little numb.

But this year's European heatwave reminds us:

it's no longer

a distant concept in a textbook.

It is becoming

a reality we each have to face,

in person, every summer.

Finally, I want to ask you two questions.

First, this summer,

where you are, is it hot?

Have you felt that

the summers of these years

are getting harder to endure year by year?

Second,

facing a hotter and hotter world,

besides turning on the AC and hiding at home,

what can each of us ordinary people

still do?

These two questions

have no standard answer.

But they are worth us

thinking about slowly.