PARIS - Europe braced for another day of an unprecedented heatwave that has smashed records in many countries and sent air conditioner sales zooming in a continent unused and ill-equipped to handle searing heat.
The extreme weather is being driven by atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, causing the mercury to slowly rise, with these factors exacerbated by global warming, experts say.
France's national temperature indicator -- an average of daytime and nighttime temperatures across 30 stations -- reached 29.8C on Tuesday, the hottest since measurements began in 1947.
Sales of fans and air conditioners, meanwhile, skyrocketed in a country where most buildings are not designed to deal with extreme heat.
On Monday, hypermarket operator Carrefour had sold 30,000 units by 6:30 pm – "a thousand times more than on a normal day", CEO Alexandre Bompard said.
Sales on Amazon nearly doubled last week compared with the same period in 2025, whilst electronics outlet Fnac Darty reported double-digit growth.
Thierry, an electrician in south-west France, said he was overwhelmed by requests for "emergency" air-conditioning installations.
"In theory, you have to submit a request to the owners' association general meeting" in residential complexes "but people don't want to wait."
"It's difficult to live" alone and without air conditioning, said Martine Belloc, a 62-year-old retiree in Bordeaux, who on Tuesday went to La ManuCo, a coworking site that mobilised to welcome elderly people.
With four more French departments being put under the highest heat alert category Wednesday, some 44 million people are affected, according to AFP calculations.
Added to the 31 departments currently on orange alert, more than 90 percent of the French population is exposed to extreme heat, with temperatures of 39C to 41C expected on Wednesday from Brittany to the Paris region, and in much of the south-west.
- AFP