Summer 2026 - Warsaw weather summary

In most part of Europe, the summer of 2026 was the hottest since records began. The continent was plagued by seven heatwaves:
1. Late May – hit Western Europe, in Warsaw temperature did not exceed +29C.
2. Late June – lengthy, the most intense and severe, in many spots, including Warsaw, the toughest since records began and record-breaking.
3. Mid-July – moderate, in Warsaw temperature topped above +30C once, on 17 July.
4. Early August – severe, lengthy, but not record-breaking in most areas, yet affected Poland.
5. Mid-August – short, intense, in Warsaw one day-time high above +30C on 15 August.
6. Late August – hit southern Europe most. In Warsaw temperature did not rise above +27C.
7. Early September – affected Western and central Europe. In Warsaw two days with maximum temperatures above +28C.

As seen in the summary above, Poland had to endure only two dreadful heatwaves and basically was treated relatively mildly, comparing to thermal shocks in France, the UK, Austria or Hungary.

All in all, with:
- June 2.4 Celsius degrees warmer, July 0.3 Celsius degrees colder and August 1.0 Celsius degrees warmer than long-term average (1991 – 2020), the entire summer was warmer than long-term average (+19.9C vs. +18.8C benchmark), but still reasonably cooler than the warmest 2024 summer (mean temperature: +21.1C) and eighth warmest since records began.

Heat records in Poland were broken during both intense heatwaves, with Warsaw setting a new all-time maximum temperature record of +38.1C. It will be difficult to beat, but sadly, a new record is just a matter of time.

In 2026 Warsaw recorded 3 days with highs above +35C (in 1994 there were four such days).

On 18 days maximum temperatures exceeded +30C. This is fewer than in 2024 (24), 2015 (also 24), 2006 (22), 2022 (19), 1994 (19) and at the par with 2019 and 1992. Of note – before 1990 the maximum number of hot days did not exceed 16 in a year.

Warsaw also endured 9 tropical nights (record from 2019 tied), including the most awful one, with minimum temperature of +24.7C (previous record beaten by +1.9 Celsius degrees).

Rainfall-wise, at first sight the situation wasn't disturbing. In June total precipitation reached 94% of long-term average, in July – 137% and in August – 135%. Nonetheless, preceding winter and spring were exceptionally dry and summer rains, including downpours, could not make up for it. Hydrological drought, in place in Poland since approximately 2014, has got only worse. These days level of Wisła is hitting all-time lows, with flow of water also being historically slow.

Looking ahead, the biggest puzzle is the indirect impact of probably the strongest El Nino ever on weather in Poland. Temperature of waters in Pacific does not influence weather in Europe much, but most forecasts hint at increased North Atlantic Oscillation, which would bring warm, plausibly the warmest on the record and rainy winter into Europe. Bearing in mind bleak prospects of war in Ukraine, rising natural gas prices and low level of gas stores kept in Europe, I keep fingers crossed for a mild winter.

Luksus kontra proste życie - book review

Luxury and simplicity are starkly contrasting lifestyle foundations, albeit some try to combine them.

Simplicity, depending on how to define it, might be a positive or a negative notion, while luxury, at least until recently, has brought out mostly positive associations.

A luxury's distinguishing marks are: limited supply, not being a part of everyday life, or being enjoyed by few chosen (elites). Whatever is experienced frequently, or by masses does not deserve to be called a luxury. For some reasons, luxury is what many people strive for. How they pursue it, depends on their social status.

The poor flaunt material goods, especially those eye-popping, the rich benefit from their wealth in silence. The poor buy small, visible stuff (electronics, clothes, footwear, used cars of premium makes), some of the rich take delight in comfort of life and not proving their wealth to anyone. The poor consume to show off, the rich accumulate, building a cushion for rainy days.

Shunning thoughtless consumption requires guts and strong will. It involves rising above pressure of consumption which surrounds us from all angles. Doing so requires self-confidence and self-esteem rooted in who you are, not what you possess.

The book praises DIY as a virtue, drawing on traditions of craftsmanship and resourcefulness. Doing (not only constructing, more often repairing) things on one's own best symbolises sprawczość (a concept best represented by English words such as: agency, self-efficacy, empowerment, though none of them fully grasps the purport).

The biggest trap of minimalism is not getting obsessed with self-discipline essential to cut down on lavish spending, but disdain towards those who have not taken the same path. Whenever I look down on drivers of oversized SUVs I catch myself having fallen into that trap. The author of the book, Mr Jakub Szczęsny has apparently also not resisted it. Besides, if minimalism becomes an ideology governing your life, you can go over the top with it and plunge into another extreme, making the life of your near and dear a misery.

The book is a manifesto of simple, yet comfortable and slow life. As the author points out, humans can draw happiness from giving up on chasing consumption. Life gets easier when pressure is released, yet I believe in order to reach that stage, one must attain a level of affluence sufficient not to worry about basic material needs and unpredictable situations in which financial resources would be a lifeboat. My post oddly coincides with a fellow blogger's musings, which overlap the notion of what a comfortable life is.

I usually recommend books I review here, but not this one. I see most things eye to eye with the author, but his scribble is tough to read, too lengthy, some chapters are a string of complaints and between the lines self-superiority comes up. Even though the ending makes up for mediocre middle chapters, my overall advice is to read it at your own risk.

Exurbs rather than suburbs?

The school year is drawing near and once the school holidays are over, roads will become busier. For those commuting to work by public transport within boundaries of Warsaw, little will change in terms of time spent on reaching the office (counting out dropping children to school, if applicable), but those who have chosen, or for financial reasons were forced to take up residency in the suburbs, will have it a bit more uphill.

Over the last three months I took three forays by bike south of Warsaw to sightsee the accursed suburbia where I would not wish to reside. The photos were taken during three bike trips, on 17 June 2026 (Jeziorki, Nowa Wola, Zamienie), 11 August 2026 (Julianów, Józefosław) and 25 August 2025 (Dawidy, Falenty, Janczewice, Podolszyn).

Jeziorki remains within the boundaries of Warsaw, yet its residents must rely on buses, railway or private motoring to reach business districts of Warsaw. On the snap, a single block of flats, built in the middle of a field in Jeziorki, close to Biedronka discount shop and in immediate vicinity of the railway station. Of note on this site a huge state-built Mieszkanie Plus housing estate was meant to be built, but the PiS government housing agenda fizzled out.

Nowa Wola, south of Jeziorki, two decades ago was a village with some older houses and arable fields. The development on the photo appeared over the last decade. Fortunately, accompanied by some shops, bakeries and even a pharmacy. Getting out of here during rush hour looms as a nightmare, but with a train station within walking distance, at least locals are not fully dependent on their motor vehicles.

To the right, Nowa Wola snapped from its western edge, maybe already from Zgorzała. Rows of same houses in the distance and fields which await giving way to next estates.

S7 expressway, as snapped from a viaduct above it between Zgorzała and Zamienie. Don't be deluded by the proximity of a fast-traffic road. It also gets congested and has traffic jams on all its ends and feeder roads on the suburbs.

Zamienie's infrastructure is slowly catching up with the number of residents occupying the village. Locals have a retail park, with a discount shop, some other retail outposts and a kebab hut, being a crucial hangout for some youngsters.

The centre of Zamienie is a spot I once documented in April 2022. Back then I griped about lack of underground garages. If you don't park vehicles beneath buildings, surrounding areas are paved over, instead of being green leisure terrains for residents.

Switching to snaps from the second trip, to Julianów. This is ul. Przyrodnicza, but could be any other street. Same relatively new semi-detached houses up to the horizon.

The next photo shows the essence of Julianów. I took it from behind a fence surrounding one of many estates of terraced houses, whose rows are several hundred metres long. All up to the forest, behind which commuting is far easier.

The holiday period was used by local authorities to modernise major roads in the village. Its effects will not accelerate movement of passenger cars, but hopefully will improve comfort and safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

In the adjacent Józefosław, the most populous village in Poland, with 14,000 inhabitants and water supply infrastructure insufficient to serve them. Each street looks the same, each street is nearly empty. The suburb lacks signs of life I see in Ursynów, which is anything, but a central district.

I could take several shots of Józefosław or Julianów, but only aerial photos will show you what those suburbs look like. When I first saw it, I had to verify the picture had not been AI-created. Sadly, this is real. Photo by Szymon Starnawski.

The dreadful rows of identical houses, with no shops, no life-enhancing infrastructure, no schools, nor nurseries and no decent public transport, coercing dwellers to rely on cars. Absolutely horrid! Photo by Szymon Starnawski. 

Moving over to snaps from the third trip. The retail park (do not confuse for a shopping mall) appears to have become a focal point for locals who no longer need to drive to Janki to do the shopping. Very few people come there on foot or by bike, so the car park is chock full of motor vehicles.

The road linking Łady and Falenty Nowe has been modernised, widened and a broad pavement for pedestrians and cyclists has been built parallel to it, commendably. Yet, this piece of infrastructure remains in the middle of nowhere.

In the entire Falenty Nowe you will find one small grocery store and one recently put up bakery hut. Reliance on cars is even heavier as the village lacks pavements. Despite this, hundreds of terraced houses were erected here over the last decade, as pricing of local housing remains competitive (and reflects all drawbacks of living here).

The monstrous estate to the right lies in Janczewice. The developer squeezed so many tiny terraced houses on one plot of land that too little space was left for garages or drives, hence it built a multi-storey car park for residents. Sheer ugliness does not beckon.

In Podolszyn, I ran across one of the longest osiedle łanowe in Poland. The row of identical semi-detached houses stretches some one kilometre into the horizon. This means dwellers of houses on its end need to walk or ride or drive more than a kilometre to start their actual journeys. Note a roadside chapel to the right.

Heading home through Dawidy Bankowe. Proper infrastructure for cyclists is in place, snap taken one hour before the sunset. Not a human in sight, the suburb is sleepy. Only the sun gloriously illuminates the wheat or whatever it is (I refuse to ask AI). Glad in twenty minutes I will be back in Ursynów.