All across Europe this summer, temperature records are breaking. As the Guardian’s Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan reports, it has hit forty degrees even in countries away from the hotter southern Europe, including Austria and Germany. In the UK, Britons are enduring the third heatwave of the summer – and it’s not even August yet.
Practical Tips for Staying Cool
But what can people do to escape the heat? The chartered engineer Tom Greenhill provides useful tips on how to stay cool, from when to let the air in to glazing your windows with yoghurt. His advice, part of the Heatwave Toolkit, emphasizes simple measures to reduce indoor temperatures without relying on air conditioning.
Government Responsibility and Action
However, as Nosheen Iqbal hears, keeping cool cannot be the responsibility of individuals alone. Ajit describes the numerous ways governments across Europe are responding, and preparing for even hotter summers to come. These responses include infrastructure investments, public health campaigns, and long-term climate adaptation strategies.



