August 2026 heatwave diary

As I was saving for posterity the record-breaking heatwave which hit central Europe in late June 2026, I sadly got it right it would not be the only one this summer. In Poland it was the second heatwave this summer, in most parts of Europe - fourth. And the fifth one is in the offing in France and in the UK.

Thursday, 16 July 2026
I get external roller shutters installed outside my windows facing north-east. Glad I hadn't put it back until next summer season, as they will prove to serve as a brilliant shield from heat.

Thursday, 30 July 2026
This heatwave commences on Thursday too, with a lovely pre-dawn low of +15C. Before the onset of high temperature I managed to cool the dwelling down to +21C, which is a decent result, given walls have accumulated a lot of heat. Afternoon high of +31C is still tolerable, especially with wind gusts up to 30 km/h.

Friday, 31 July 2026
The night wasn't that lovely, since temperature did not drop below +20C, actually with a low of exactly +20.0C it ranked as a tropical night, a fifth one this year (nine tropical nights were endured in Warsaw in summer 2019, the record is likely to be broken this year).
The afternoon high of +33C was markedly lower than forecasts of +36C. Moderate cloud cover has not let the air warm up. Nevertheless, it does not feel nice. I return home after a beer or three in town around 10 p.m. and the air remains sultry, yet Ursynów is noticeably less warm than the city centre.

Saturday, 1 August 2026
A short, intense downpour hit Warsaw overnight. Cloud cover did not let the heat get released into the skies. Consequently, night-time low reached +21.3C (sixth tropical night this summer). Air in the morning is horridly humid. In the afternoon temperature climbs to +31C, with heat index even higher (air humidity > 50%). After 3:00 p.m. a thunderstorm hits Warsaw. It does not bring the temperature much down, but air humidity is even higher. Two next showers in the evening.

Sunday, 2 August 2026
Finally a cooler morning with a low of +17C, but air humidity close to 100%. The entire day brings some relief from the heat, as temperature does not rise above +25C, giving some time to brace for the second blow of this heatwave.

My eyes in the meantime are on Hungary. The country's core nuclear power plant, Paks, is running below its full capacity due to low level of Danube and consequent deficiency of water to cool the bloc. A full shutdown seems inevitable. Hungary is in the focal point of the current heatwave. Temperatures in Budapest reached daytime highs in excess of +35C each day since 30 July. The climax of the scorching episode is forecast for 5 August, with high above +40C and low of +24C. The country faces a threat of paralysis amid a deadly heat. Emergency situation is also in neighbouring Romania, where power plant's cooling unit is brought to a halt by deficiency of water. Since grids in the region are interconnected, several countries, including Poland may face power outages. In Poland such incidences have not taken place since August 2015.

Monday, 3 August 2026
The night and early morning were supposed to be brisk. In fact, with accursed cloud cover, temperature did not drop below +18C with high air humidity. During the working week Warsaw will need to endure at least one day-time high above +35C. Today, as clouds did not fade during the day, temperature reached only +29.5C. In the afternoon it felt astonishingly comfortable, as the wind took the gloss of the heat. After sunset an electrical thunderstorm with moderate rainfall comes over Warsaw.

During the last harsh winter I began counting down days until March (when snow and frost were likely to ease off). Time to start counting down days until September, when at least tropical nights are unlikely.

Tuesday, 4 August 2026
One more night-time rain has passed over the capital. With a low of +19.9C the night does not formally rank as tropical, but given air humidity close to 90%, the morning is anything, but enjoyable. During the day temperature rises to +31C, however with air humidity near 50%. Sultry. In southern Poland day-time highs reach +37C.

The grids in Hungary and Romania have not yet collapsed, as large industrial off-takers have cut down on or halted manufacturing. With effects of drought being felt for weeks to come, the energy-saving measures will remain in place after the heatwave peters out.

Wednesday, 5 August 2026
The night was a bloody hell. With clouds in place, temperature did not decline below +22C (seventh tropical night this year). Past 7:00 it was already +24C and vapour was hanging in the air. Warnings of record-breaking heat have not materialised in Warsaw. Day-time high of +35.7C is over one Celsius degree short of Poland's capital August all-time high (+37.0C on 8 August 2013). But in Kozienice, less than 100 km south of Warsaw, temperature climbs to +38.8C. Many spots in southern Poland today broke their records of maximum temperature, yet the fresh (38 days old) countrywide heat record remains untouched.
Inside: +25C, but with air humidity of 70%, already uncomfortable.

In Austria and Slovakia temperatures rose above +41C for the first time in history.

The Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary is shut down. Grids in several countries south of Poland, i.e. Hungary, Romania and Moldova are under pressure. Blackouts are averted thanks to decreased demand from large manufacturing plants. Economic growth has led to the global warming. Now the global warming tapers the economic growth.

Thursday, 6 August
The eight tropical night this summer. The worst part of the morning is wearing a suit and getting with a suitcase and a bag to a car parked outside (+24C and sultry air at that moment). I set off from home for a two-day business trip, firstly to Podlasie, then directly from there, to Podhale. The entire trip, 1,300 kilometres, taken by car (hybrid Toyotas do not emit little CO2 in motorway driving), thus feeling guilty of contributing to the hell which we are enduring.
Forecasts of cold front bringing abundant rainfall and relief from the heat in the early afternoon in Warsaw have not materialised. In Podlasie temperature reached +35C (according to car thermometer, but in line with official readings). After a meeting with a client I stopped by at a petrol station to swap suit for shorts and t-shirt. On my way to Kraków I encountered small hail. I stopped over for a much-belated lunch somewhere beyond Grójec and temperature out there was (according to car thermometer) +37C. Somewhere close to Kielce the highest reading was +39C. Aircon in the car did its job well, but in a KFC restaurant despite aircon running at full blast, it kept the interior at some +25C. Efficiency of aircon in my hotel room seems insufficient.

Friday, 7 August 2026
The aircon in my hotel room produced more noise than cold air overnight. Kraków needs to get through a tropical night, during which I switched off the aircon fuse and opened the window. In Warsaw morning rainfall sends temperature below gently +20C. Markedly below +30C during the day. Some proper relief from the heat due over the weekend.
So far there have been 16 hot (maximum temperature above +30C) days this year in the capital of Poland (vs. record-high number of 24 in 2015 and 2024), but the summer has not run out. Tomorrow’s high is forecast to be above +30C, but it will be a one-day incidence of heat. Counting down days until autumn...

Where am I heading?

Basically, especially looking from an onlooker's perspective at my life, things aren't going on wrong.

Health-wise, with the exception of the lumbar spine which I will have be careful with until the end of my days, with depression kept at bay, there is nothing more to worry. Should a mishap strike me, money is put aside to ensure superior medical care.

Work-wise, eight months into the path a few years ago I would shun, not only do I not regret it, but apparently I get ahead. My workmates, especially my team and my boss are glad they work with me. At times it is tough, at times I am sick of it, yet those moments don't change my overall positive perception.

My parents are getting older, with mum now 76, dad just turned 77. They carry on, yet their physical and mental fitness has been on decline over the last years. I face what almost everybody faces, maybe except for being totally alone with it. They are my only family, I have no bonds with other relatives and frankly speaking I don't feel like reviving them. Such is the reason why I fear their death.

My social life does exist, I can't complain about intensity of my social interactions (three times out in town over the last week), yet it is not as abundant as of single women who can boast of more robust social capital, built mostly on relationships with fellow females.

With respect to discontinued involvement in Szlachetna Paczka, my decision taken during the recent edition is upheld. I feel burnt out, too much has gone wrong and it would be too hard to make up for it. Moreover, with current work-related duties, the Paczka would be too time-consuming. My lookout for an alternative volunteering has not yet commenced. Maybe I'm putting it back to cool down.

Am I one of those, whose self-fulfilment hinges upon raising a family, primarily passing my genes to the next generation, or, as the malicious one would put into in words – leaving the offspring to this lousy, overcrowded planet?

Are my efforts to pursue the above doomed to fail? Dating-wise, I can't gripe about lack of interest from women (a problem several males of my age have) on dating apps (which is a far broader universe than offline world). Why doesn't it then develop into a relationship? After over a year I make out two repeatable scenarios: either a woman asks more questions to find out if I live up to her expectations and at that stage her letdown comes up (beneficial for everyone, wasted time spared) or we meet in person, often want to meet again or even do so, but it turns out she has no room in her life (in which she's tremendously busy) to fit getting to know a man better. Those women will most likely end up as happy singles.

Writing about interest, unpaid versions of popular dating apps show you some details of persons who swiped you right, including the age. From there I know more than two-third of women interested in me are aged 38 or more. Women in early 30s seeking a male a few years older are in minority. With such age profile of potential life companions, odds to become a father dwindle.

This might be the moment to ask myself a question whether it makes sense to pair up, but not have children. Such relationship would always contain the missing piece, an unsatisfied desire with a potential to blow up a relationship, even if both partners want offspring, but for reasons beyond their control can't have it.

I'm most fed up with going through the same scheme with every match, an experience of fatigue most dating app users are familiar with. The natural defence mechanism is taking breaks, to start over after a while. The in-person meetings are usually a nicely spent time, though getting me nowhere. They are just a form of temporal escape from a mundane reality.

In these lousy times like never before people seek outbursts of dopamine brought by travels, doing sports, fine dining, profligate consumption, seeking attention in social media, less frequently casual sex (I suspect some women have so many other sources of dopamine that they no longer need it). Travels and doing sport bring me joy, some other dopamine triggers don't work with me. Taking delight in pleasurable activities does give relief from the void, partly in the same way as intoxication gives short-term relief from the sorrow of being alive. I wish I can rise above it

Raising children and keeping them company, as they reach next stages of their lives moves a parent's life ahead. You wait for their first words, first day in nursery school, then next stages of education, doing things together, their first boyfriend or girlfriend, first job, then grandchildren. The very latter one becomes an unfulfilled dream of many contemporary folks in their 60s or 70s. Without offspring, life shapes like a circle. You may wait for a next trip to another continent or for another shot of dopamine, for the decease of your parents, you may live your siblings' children's life. Alternatively, you may fall in a self-development trap at which I look with disdain.

Upon talking to friends, then to AI (who does not ask philosophical questions to technology?) I have reached a conclusion I long for a sense of belonging, most easily found in romantic relationships and difficult to feel in a world spoilt by staring at smartphone screens.

Quite recently I got familiar with a concept devised by Paul Gilbert who posits humans exist within three circles: threat, drive and soothing. A proper balance between the three is critical for one's well-being. I swing between the two former, while in the latter circle I can find myself for short moments only, too short to restore a piece of mind, truly relax and calm down.

If my Guardian angel was to have their say about the above, what would they say?

Lumbar spine - a little crisis

After a major lumbar spine crisis in autumn 2024 my orthopaedist predicted such incidences would recur, given the irreversible degradation of my bones. The causes of the acute pain were eliminated and preventive measures, including strengthening muscles, to take the strain off the spine, were put in place. For many months, I could say I fought several battles for an active, pain-free life in a war which I will most likely lose. My aim is to defer the defeat by possibly many years, counting on a progress in medicine which would let a potential surgery be less invasive.

With some minor incidences of ache along the way, it all went smoothly until Saturday, 11 July. After the walk around the neighbourhood, which involved mostly standing upright for more than two hours, I felt a pain down my back, but took a rest, exercised a bit and chased it away. On Sunday, 12 July I forgot to take a towel to a swimming pool. I realised it in a locker room, but decided to carry on and return home wet, despite chilly (as for July) and windy weather. 

A few hours later I felt the pain which could not be exercised nor massaged away. It somewhat immobilised me, got so severe that I could not sleep at night. On Monday I started out an emergency procedure, i.e. making an appointment with a GP and any orthopaedist under my medical care plan to get an MRI referral, making sure my physiotherapist would be up to the task and arranging lifts to get there (for some two days I was unable to drive, nor to walk without trekking sticks).

Comparing the current incident, hopefully drawing to a close with the one dated September 2024, I notice numerous differences:
- 2024: I did not take any precautions, now: it occurred after months of taking preventive measures,
- 2024: I did have a lot of physical activity, maybe too intense, now: moderate, frequent, manifold exercising, including weekly visits to a gym with u customised workout plan devised by an experienced physiotherapist,
- 2024: the pain was developing for some 10 days, but I kept shrugging it off, hoping it would go away, now: my attempts to nip it in the bud went in vain and the pain knocked me down within 3 hours,
- 2024: the pain nearly immobilised and I could not sit (except for when I really needed to) for some 3 weeks or so, now: for one day I had problems with both sitting and walking, then I just could not sit for more than half an hour for a few days,
- 2024: I took a sickie for a week and then worked from bed for five weeks, now: worked from bed for a week,
- 2024: the very first symptom, with hindsight heralding the disaster was an acute ache when sneezing, now: it did not ache when I sneezed,
- 2024: strong opium-based painkillers did not seem to help (or without them I would have been screaming out), now: painkillers relieved the pain reasonably quickly (I have given up on them altogether after 11 days, reducing dosage over that time, as they remove the effect, not curing the cause).

I have broadly returned to most normal life activities, although I am waiting for green light for swimming. I had to call off a business trip planned for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, as it could squander all my efforts to pull through.

I still don't know what sparked the passing crisis, but I find it hard to believe going out wet after swimming pool knocked me down so mercilessly.

Lesson of humility has been learnt. It was a terrible reminder taking care of myself might not be enough and callous days might come, no matter how badly I endeavour to avert them.

Wieś Moczydło

While choosing a place to live, I deliberately chose a part of Ursynów with soul, climate and traces of the past scattered around modern development. I am to feel affinity with a place, I need be familiar with its history. Over years I found probably all historical photos of my neighbourhood available online, most on impressive Ursynow.org.pl site. Nevertheless I believed the local history had some unexplored areas and hence signed up for an open-air seminar on the history of Moczydło, which took part last Saturday.

Areas of Ursynów until 1970s were countryside and then, while plans of building a huge housing estate came into effect, development brutally took over, depriving the rural areas its character. I must here remind boundaries of Warsaw were enlarged in 1951 and most of contemporary Ursynów was incorporated into the capital back then. Yet in spite of being formally a city area, in practice until mid-1970 those were purely rural zones. 

Close to there I live for many decades until late 1940s there was a folwark (a grange), which in the early years of the communist era was converted into a PGR (a state-owned farm) and then torn down in late 1970s, as construction of Natolin housing estate was drawing near.

An old stable by ul. Moczydłowska serves as  remnant of the bygone farm infrastructure. The only building left is rundown, its windows and doors are bricked over to protect its interior from unwanted guests. Its roof was replaced after a fire in late 1990s. The building is under care of a konserwator zabytków (a heritage conservationist), its future fate remains as a puzzle, but on a grapevine it can be heard one day it might be converted into a community centre.

West of ul. Moczydłowska one can still spot three run-down houses, two of which have not been inhabited for years, the last one was emptied some two years ago. Oddly enough, in the area where properties cost zillions, that house lacked running water and sewage until its last days in use, its dwellers brought water from a well and used a portable loo put up on their backyard. During the walk I learnt there was a seasonal shop in the 1980s and early 1990s and a private garage, where pioneer dwellers of Ursynów could have their cars repaired.

The houses in the distance are a part of posh Kabacki Zakątek estate, built just on the verge of forest. As the construction was completed in 2016, they do not categorise as part of historical development. I bring them up here, since one of those houses is currently up for sale, at asking price of whopping PLN 14.5 million.

Ul. Wełniana used to serve as a backbone of the village. Most of old houses have been torn down to give way to new developments, but not the house to the right which used to be set on fire by locals vandals many times, until 2022 when all door and window holes were bricked over. During the seminar I learnt (from a man who was born and brought up here) the property is an inheritance three sister argued about and eventually did not dispose of it. The plot is worth some three to four millions of Polish zloty and frankly speaking quarrelling about it goes beyond my comprehension.

North of ul. Wełniana one can come across arable fields which remain cultivated by a local farmer and have not been sold. Someone's determination to grow vegetables on a land which could be sold for an 8-digit amount of PLN is remarkable, but mind-boggling. Passing it by, I consider myself lucky to have been able to buy a flat in this area when properties were relatively more affordable. At that time I had 8 years of professional experience and my net-of-tax salary (average over a year) could buy 0.8 sqm of a flat. These days, after 16 years of well-developing career and on a managerial stool, my net-of-tax salary can buy around 1.0 sqm of a flat (in the same standard as I bought) here. And note property prices have not gone up, or even marginally fell over last two years, so in 2024 properties were even less affordable.