The title holds true, but it only escapes waves so far and has not escaped the heat altogether. Until yesterday, there were only 3 days with day-time highs above +30C, including 3 July 2025, when temperature topped at +36.5C, the highest since or 8 August 2015 (+36.6C) and beating July heat record for Warsaw (+35.9C set on 31 July 1994). Today we expect another day with maximum temperature in excess of +30C, then shall ensue a cooler period.
When the heat lasts short enough, you can take shelter from it indoors, provided you do not let your dwelling heat itself up. Unlike most people, I let in cooler air at night, then close windows and pull down external rollers and sit in a closed-off flat until late evening, thus enjoying some +22C without air-conditioning.
The capital of Poland has been in the luck so far, looking at the plagues which afflicted cities in south-western Europe.
In Lisbon thermometers on 29 June 2025 showed +41C.
In Madrid:
- June 2025 was the hottest one since records began,
- the heat wave lasted since 27 May 2025 with some intermittent slightly cooler
days with day-time highs between +25C and +30C,
- over that time on 34 days temperatures topped above +30C,
- therein on 23 days temperature was higher than +35C, but never reached +40C.
And the heat is not going to ease off.
In Paris the heat wave commenced on 13 June 2025, since then the city recorded 13 days with temperatures above +30C (and several only slightly less hot), with a high of +39C on 1 July 2025.
In Rome the heat wave has kept plaguing the city since 29 May 2025. Over that time there were 33 days with maximum temperature above +30C and 13 days when temperature exceeded +35C. Here also the prospects for milder weather give little hope.
The entire northern hemisphere has been scorching in recent weeks. We had a heat dome over the USA, temperatures above +45C in Sahara, peaks above +50C in Kuwait, Iran and other Arab countries, massive heat waves in continental Asia and in Japan.
The rest of summer is foreseen to be warmer than average also in Poland, however from tomorrow on we will see a spell of milder weather, before most likely a longer heat wave comes over in mid-July.
The climate
change is here and summer months are the time when it hits us most severely.
Climate stats indicate clearly the global warming is speeding up in our region.
The current benchmark period for Warsaw is 1991-2020. Comparing most recent
weather records to the averages from that period you will see that:
- the last summer (defined as June + July + August) which was not warmer than
average was in 2009 and the last colder than average summer was in 2004,
- in the current decade there were only 5 (our of 54) months when average
temperature was markedly colder than average for that month: April 2021, August 2021, April 2022, September 2022, May 2025 (note lack of any such month in 2023
and in 2024),
- in benchmark period 1971-2000 the average number of days in a year with
day-time highs above +30C was 5.0; in the current benchmark period it was 9.5,
but looking at last 3 summers: in 2022 there were 19 such hot days, in 2023 –
16 hot days, in 2024 – 22 hot days, which is a record-high number.
Heat waves used to hit since decades or even since centuries. They used to come once in several years. Recently each year brings at least one heat wave and those which plague us last longer and are more intense. If the climate change carries on like this, southern Europe will become an unbearable place to live. Several tourists already begin to shun it in high summer, as temperature and not just unpleasant, they pose a hazard to health.
In Poland we will need to adjust to hotter summers. Air-conditioning, powered by solar panels will have to become prevalent. In public spaces concrete will need to give way to greenery. We are on our way towards a disaster, a world which will become an unfriendly place to live. This will be the price to pay for chasing GDP growth and consumption fuelling it. The side effect will be productivity lost due to the heat, which is inexorable.
