Mastodawn

DutchCheryl 11h ago

Kees van der Leun

I'm afraid that many here in the Netherlands don't fully understand yet how hot the coming days will be. We're heading for 4 consecutive days like this (map for Wednesday). 35°C really feels different than 30°C!
The weirdest part is that this already happens in June.
(It's climate change at work)
1/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

Four consecutive very hot days mean that homes gradually get hotter. Around 75% of our homes doesn't have a cooling system, despite the rapid growth of air conditioning since 2019. We never needed one before climate change hit hard.
2/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

Meteorological institute @knmi now predicts that the nights will get very hot too. For the night from Thursday to Friday, they expect a low temperature of 24°C. That'd beat the previous record from July 2018 by 1.5°C!
Night ventilation won't cool our homes to a comfortable level in such a night.
3/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

This coming Friday will be the 9th day of our national heatwave (consecutive days above 25°C with at least three above 30°C). We've never seen such a long heatwave before July (8 days in 1936 and 1976), and it won't be over yet on Friday.
4/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

Five or six 'tropical days' (above 30°C) in June is very rare for the center of the country (De Bilt). I don't have the stats at hand (I bet @Datagraver does), but it's more typical for the summer as a whole, with most occurring in July and August.
5/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

The absolute high temperatures that we'll experience in the coming days are extreme, too. For 75 years, we knew that the highest temperature ever recorded was 38.6°C in Warnsveld (1944). Then came July 2019, and we crashed forward to 40.7°C (Gilze Rijen, 25 July).
Now, 39-40°C is already possible again.
6/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

In short, this is a weirdly extreme event, only possible due to climate change. As @tinuspulles.bsky.social pointed out, explanations like 'heat dome' and 'jet stream' are about mechanisms. The driving force behind all of this is global warming, largely due to burning fossil fuels.
7/8

Kees van der Leun 20h ago

Of course, people in other countries are experiencing much higher temperatures with much less means to protect themselves. But now, it's coming home to our relatively rich (and high emission) part of the world, too.

We need bold and rapid climate action now!
(8/8, for now).

Kees van der Leun 11h ago

There we go. Sweaty morning commute on the bicycle. Temperature already 7°C up from its early morning low by 08:30.
Found the office at 27.5°C; keeping the shading down at night is not allowed here, so the evening sun heated it up nicely. Cooling it down a bit for the colleagues now :)
+1

@Sustainable2050
Vandaar dat ik om 06.00 opgestaan ben. Verschil twee uur later duidelijk te voelen. Planten die geel blad kregen water gegeven met water uit regenton.

Rihards Olups 5h ago

@Sustainable2050 «not allowed»?

Drew 🇵🇭17h ago

@Sustainable2050
We needed it 10+ years ago when the people in these other countries were pleading and the rich part of the world was ignoring them.

Knud Jahnke 12h ago

@drewph @Sustainable2050

Yes, but the second best time, after "10 years ago", is now.

Aurochs 11h ago

@drewph @Sustainable2050 Yeah,you are right, because 10 years from now doesn't matter

Dr. Jürgen Knödlseder 11h ago

@Sustainable2050 The driving force is not that we burn fossil fuels. The driving force is that we burn so much fossil fuels. And this points towards capitalism as the root cause. #ClimateChange #Degrowth

⠠⠵ avuko 10h ago

@jknodlseder @Sustainable2050 fossil fuels seemed like a great idea at the time. They were. For a tiny moment in time. The waste products (including heat) will be with us for millions of years.

Also, to all you people out there now clamouring for nuclear power:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2026/06/24/heatwave-in-france-spells-uncertainty-for-several-edf-nuclear-reactors-but-rte-says-the-overall-grid-is-secure_6754812_19.html
[non-paywall link: https://archive.is/YBHHH]

TLDR: nuclear needs cooling. Things die downstream if you dump 28+ °C water. Also, the power output decreases or plants have to be shut down when the water going in is too warm. See https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/cooling-power-plants for details.

And to those who hope AI will rescue us:
https://infosec.exchange/@avuko/116799446090120614

TLDR: normal data centers, which don’t run as hot as AI ones, need cooling. You can’t cool with warm water (assuming there is still water left).

#ClimateChange #genAI #ai #nuclear #Degrowth

@avuko @jknodlseder @Sustainable2050 Oh noes! Cooling! Why has no one thought of that?!

/s

To be clear: the water-temperature-related reduction of yearly output of France's nuclear fleet is less than half a percent even in the hottest years. This is not a real problem.

In the future, we will probably see more cooling towers, or even dry cooling towers.

Because we didn't all decarbonize our grids like France did 40 years ago.

@avuko @jknodlseder @Sustainable2050

Just to be clear: the »AI« »industry« has to die.

Datagraver.com 20h ago

@Sustainable2050 Correct. Frequency below, no split between months (have to look into that to visualize, but glance at data says most in July and August indeed.)
Also heatwaves happen in June, but less frequent and shorter.
https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/klimatologie/lijsten/hittegolven

Artemysia 20h ago

@Sustainable2050 this is terrible. Those are Australian summer temperatures. There's a real risk of bushfire, forest fire. Has it rained recently? People probably don't realise how hazardous those temperatures can be. You MUST rest in the heat of the day; care needs to be taken for outdoor workers. Put water out for animals and birds.

🇵🇸 em mohamed 🍉19h ago

@Sustainable2050 With this extreme heat, how will people live here in tents? May God help them.

@Sustainable2050 damn UV index like that keep outta the sun you will tan in the shade!

@Sustainable2050 I was watching a few videos about Efteling Park, and the guests were all wrapped up in jackets, which I've never worn at a theme park where I live. I thought "Oh, it must not get very warm in the Netherlands."

Well, it does now. Any kind of weather can now happen anywhere, which is scary.

Khovergirl 10h ago

@Sustainable2050
We're heading to Flevoland for a festival. At home we would have similar temperatures and we are prepared for the heat. But I'm a bit afraid if I make it through.

We thought (like many others) we are safe in June.