2003 European heatwave

The 2003 European heat wave saw the hottest summer recorded in Europe since at least 1540. Spain, France, and Italy were hit especially hard. The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe. The death toll has been estimated at more than 70,000.
The predominant heat was recorded in July and August, partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds.

By country

France

In France, 14,802 heat-related deaths occurred during the heat wave, according to the French National Institute of Health. France does not commonly have very hot summers, particularly in the northern areas, but eight consecutive days with temperatures of more than were recorded in Auxerre, Yonne in early August 2003. Because of the usually relatively mild summers, most people did not know how to react to very high temperatures. Most single-family homes and residential facilities were not equipped with central air conditioning. While contingency plans were made for a variety of natural and man-made catastrophes, high temperatures had rarely been considered a major hazard.
The catastrophe occurred in August, a month in which many people, including government ministers and physicians, are on holiday. Many bodies were not claimed for many weeks because relatives were on holiday. A refrigerated warehouse outside Paris was used by undertakers as they did not have enough space in their own facilities. On September 3, 2003, 57 bodies were still left unclaimed in the Paris area, and were buried.
The high number of deaths can be explained by the conjunction of seemingly unrelated events. Most nights in France are cool, even in summer. As a consequence, houses do not warm too much during the daytime and radiate minimal heat at night, and air conditioning is usually unnecessary. During the heat wave, temperatures remained at record highs even at night, breaking the usual cooling cycle.
Elderly people living by themselves had never faced such extreme heat before and did not know how to react or were too mentally or physically impaired by the heat to make the necessary adaptations themselves. Elderly people with family support or those residing in nursing homes were more likely to have others who could make the adjustments for them. This led to unexpected survival rates with the weakest group having fewer deaths than the more physically fit; most of the heat victims came from the group of elderly not requiring constant medical care; often childless women who lived alone.
That shortcomings of the nation's health system could allow such a death toll is a controversy in France. The administration of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin laid the blame on families who had left their elderly behind without caring for them, the 35-hour workweek, which affected the amount of time doctors could work, and family practitioners vacationing in August. Many companies traditionally closed in August, so people had no choice about when to vacation. Family doctors were still in the habit of vacationing at the same time. It is not clear that more physicians would have helped, as the main limitation was not the health system, but locating those which were needing of assistance.
The opposition, as well as many of the editorials of the French local press, blamed the administration. Many blamed Health Minister Jean-François Mattei for failing to return from his vacation when the heat wave became serious, and his aides for blocking emergency measures in public hospitals. A particularly vocal critic was Dr. Patrick Pelloux, head of the union of emergency physicians, who blamed the Raffarin administration for ignoring warnings from health and emergency professionals and trying to minimize the crisis. Mattei lost his ministerial post in a cabinet reshuffle on 31 March 2004.
Not everyone blamed the government. "The French family structure is more dislocated than elsewhere in Europe, and prevailing social attitudes hold that once older people are closed behind their apartment doors or in nursing homes, they are someone else's problem", said Stéphane Mantion, an official with the French Red Cross. "These thousands of elderly victims didn't die from a heat wave as such, but from the isolation and insufficient assistance they lived with day in and out, and which almost any crisis situation could render fatal."
Moreover, the French episode of heat wave in 2003 shows how heat wave dangers result from the intricate association of natural and social factors. Although research established that heat waves represent a major threat for public health, France had no policy in place. Until the 2003 event, heat waves were a strongly underestimated risk in the French context, which partly explains the high number of victims.
Below are statistics for the month of August 2003 in France.

Location	Avg high °C	Avg low °C	Aug'03 high °C	Aug'03 mean °C	Aug'03 low °C	Max temp °C	Max mean °C	Max low °C	2–13 Aug'03 high °C	2–13 Aug'03 low °C	High >35 °C days	High >30 °C days	Mean >30 °C days		Low >25 °C days	Low >20 °C days
Auxerre	25.8	14.1	32.5	25.0	17.5	41.1	32.0	23.3	39.3	21.1	11	19	9	23	0	10
Bastia	29.3	19.4	33.2	28.2	23.1	37.9	30.8	25.0	33.9	23.4	7	31	3	31	2	31
Biarritz	24.7	17.0	28.2	24.0	19.8	40.6	31.0	23.5	31.6	21.3	3	6	1	25	0	13
Bordeaux	27.1	15.7	32.1	25.8	19.4	40.7	31.5	23.5	38.0	21.4	12	20	6	28	0	13
Boulogne-sur-Mer	20.5	14.9	23.3	20.0	16.8	34.8	29.5	24.1	27.7	19.2	0	5	0	7	0	6
Grenoble	26.4	14.0	33.1	24.8	16.5	39.5	29.2	20.2	37.6	17.7	12	23	0	27	0	2
Lille	23.3	13.8	26.6	21.1	15.5	36.6	28.2	20.8	32.2	18.3	3	9	0	11	0	3
Lorient	22.6	13.4	28.0	21.8	15.6	37.5	29.3	21.0	33.0	18.4	4	11	0	15	0	4
Lyon	27.2	16.0	33.6	26.8	20.0	40.5	31.2	23.2	38.4	21.5	11	25	8	30	0	17
Marseille	28.7	18.7	34.0	28.2	22.4	37.7	31.2	26.6	35.8	22.9	12	29	5	31	2	28
Metz	24.8	13.6	31.0	23.8	16.5	39.5	30.4	22.3	37.4	19.1	11	16	2	18	0	4
Montpellier	28.9	18.5	32.2	26.8	21.4	36.1	29.6	24.6	33.3	21.4	2	27	0	31	0	27
Nancy	24.7	13.2	31.3	23.7	16.1	39.3	29.1	22.2	37.2	18.0	11	16	0	19	0	3
Nantes	25.0	14.2	30.1	23.7	17.2	39.2	31.3	23.8	35.0	19.6	7	13	2	20	0	6
Nice	27.7	20.5	31.2	27.5	23.7	35.0	31.4	27.7	32.4	25.3	1	22	4	31	6	31
Nîmes	30.6	18.4	36.0	28.5	21.0	40.5	30.8	24.3	38.5	21.2	22	30	8	22	0	22
Paris	25.0	15.7	29.9	24.4	18.8	39.5	32.5	25.5	36.8	22.6	9	13	8	17	2	11
Rennes	24.3	13.7	29.8	23.1	16.8	39.5	31.8	24.0	34.3	19.1	6	13	2	19	0	4
Saint-Étienne	26.3	13.8	32.0	24.9	17.8	39.3	30.0	22.6	37.0	19.6	11	19	1	25	0	7
Strasbourg	25.4	14.1	31.9	24.4	16.8	38.5	29.2	20.8	36.6	18.6	10	18	0	24	0	4
Toulouse	27.9	16.5	34.0	27.0	20.0	40.7	31.8	23.9	38.8	21.4	15	27	8	29	0	15
Tours	25.4	13.7	31.4	24.5	17.5	39.8	31.2	22.6	37.3	21.2	11	14	5	21	0	10

The 2003 heatwave served as a wake-up call for many cities to take action on reducing climate risks in urban areas. The following year, the country drew up the National Heat Wave Plan built on national forecasting and alert systems. Despite hotter summers since, the death toll has been significantly lowered. In addition to a major effort to issue warning messages in time, the plan includes measures such as cooling rooms at senior centers, replacing tarmac at playgrounds with more heat reflective materials, and mandatory insulation in construction regulation. This reflects a growing awareness of the benefit of an integrated response to risks like heatwaves, compared to stand-alone technologies and projects and greater attention paid to green and blue infrastructure in city planning. Since 2012, French construction standards for new buildings and, to a lesser extent for existing buildings, have included requirements regarding comfort during heatwaves. In Paris, adding parks and green spaces has been another key solution to heatwaves. Urban greening is most effective when green spaces are watered during a heatwave. Doing so increases the cooling effect from evapotranspiration.