Keep cool and hydrated in this heatwave!

[NormanH]

Three quite young (38-41 yr olds) died over the weekend down here after exercising in the terrific heat (over 40° in direct sun)

One made the unfortunate mistake of jumping into cold water to cool off after a long session in the sun.

http://www.midilibre.fr/2017/06/13/trois-personnes-decedees-dans-la-region-un-coup-de-chaleur-mortel,1520802.php

[Chancer]

Timely,  I have always avoided the daytime sun, Sunday night I ran 12K then walked the same to return, I dont like to run beyond 15K without drinking (dependant on the temp) but walking is fine.

 

Monday afternoon I did a 11.7k trek with a friend, one of my running routes, it was overcast to start then the sun came out, I wasn't dehydrated at the end but my face is now like a red traffic light, it hit me much harder and left me far more tired than the run the night before, had we left a couple of hours earlier or later I would not have even felt it but we all have limited time which was probably the case with the deceased.

 

A tip if you are running or walking long distances and dont want to carry water, try to pass by a cemetary, they all have standpipes, except for the British Commonwealth ones which are 90% of the cemetaries around me [:(]

[alittlebitfrench]

What heatwave ??? LOL

It's summer for crying out loud. It tends to get hot in the summer. It like that every year.

[woolybanana]

Not only is there a heatwave but there has been no real rain since the early Spring which means my water butts are ju7st about empty. Tomatoes need to feed and drink, baby plants dehydrating .......... And the neighbour's just shrug and say it is an exceptional year.

I am beginning to wonder if this area is not drought and frost prone.

By the way, anybody know a good source of greenhouses?

[NormanH]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]What heatwave ??? LOL

It's summer for crying out loud. It tends to get hot in the summer. It like that every year.[/quote]

Summer in France  is considered to begin on the 21st June, and goes on till the 22nd September. The point here is that over 40° in full sun is quite rare in June.

Thank you once again for a useful and positive contribution.

[alittlebitfrench]

Norman, Norman, Norman....

The weather has been upside down for years in France, Just because the summer starts on the 21st does not mean the summer starts on the 21st.

No it is not rare.

I bet you a million euros August will be cold this year.

[Patf]

Norman - I sent your link to eldest son who lives in Kuwait. He and his wife are fitness fanatics and he still goes for a run most days. He Skyped me on his phone yesterday while he was out running.

It's  nearing the hottest time of the year there, and they'll soon be coming back to the UK for a couple of months.

[woolybanana]

Sounds as if your son is in Education?

[NormanH]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Norman, Norman, Norman....

The weather has been upside down for years in France, Just because the summer starts on the 21st does not mean the summer starts on the 21st.

No it is not rare.

I bet you a million euros August will be cold this year.[/quote]

I always appreciate your capacity to substantiate your dogmatism  with references and facts [:P]

Concernant le mois de juin en cours, il s'annonce dors-et-déjà comme

l'un des plus chauds de l'histoire. "Il est possible que ce mois de juin

se rapproche des plus chauds que nous ayons connu, explique Christelle

Robert. On va en tout cas se rapprocher du top 3".

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/meteo/meteo-le-mois-de-juin-dans-le-top-3-des-plus-chauds-de-l-histoire_1916509.html

[alittlebitfrench]

Is that right....don't they say that every year ???

I got sunburnt in February years ago in the garden. Not this year, or last because it was flipin cold.

When did you move to France Norman...just out of interest.

Were you in France in 2003 ? That was quite hot to be fair.

[NormanH]

I moved in 1996. 2003 was the famous 'canicule' with lots of deaths, and I was in Hospital at La Timone in Marseille  with a DVT and pulmonary embolism possibly brought on by the heat and dehydration.

The upper floors of the hospital either had no air-conditioning or it was turned off to save it for the operating theatre ; so the plasters that kept our drips in place kept peeling off ..

BUT that was in August, not June. I remember as I was over there with a friend for the Assumption on the 15th..

A few weeks earlier I had walked miles from the station in Montagis for a job interview, then gone back to central Paris for the 13/14th July, but that episode in Marseille marked the end of mobility for me.

This was Monday in June (but not full sun)

[URL=http://s253.photobucket.com/user/bfb_album/media/19059522_1212037005609083_8217262658755973557_n_zpshx7jjthw.jpg.html][IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/19059522_1212037005609083_8217262658755973557_n_zpshx7jjthw.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[nomoss]

It was also very hot just south of here in August 2003.

Several people died in this fire in Catalunya, including a family who ran to an open field, away from the fire, and were suffocated due to lack of oxygen. Their dog, left behind at their house, survived.

[URL=http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nomoss/media/Posted%20on%20Forums/Fire%208_zpsbe7r4bp0.jpg.html][IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/Posted%20on%20Forums/Fire%208_zpsbe7r4bp0.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[Gardengirl]

It can be difficult to know what is the best thing to do in any emergency, most of us go with our instinct which, of course, can be the wrong thing to do, with dreadful consequences.

I've just seen a yellow weather warning for canicule in several areas, including us here in the Gard. Not a surprise really, with temperatures in the mid-thirties in deep shade by day and a few degrees lower by night.

Last night was particularly bad with just under 27C in our apartment during the night, despite doors and windows being closed and shuttered all day and the awning out. Our clim isn't working right, woke us up with banging noises in the middle of Sunday night and for now we've been told not to use it for more than a couple of hours at a time.

This is our 9th June since moving in here and the hottest during that time, plus we were often down here in our town in June for years before that, can't remember it as hot as this. None of my calendars show temperatures this high sustained for several days/nights.

It was interesting to note that Alès, a little north-west of us, was the hottest place in France yesterday, with 38C. ?

[Chancer]

Not a good evening to find when I arrived at the running club it was a soirée piste with invited clubs from within the departement, I was totally unprepared but did a 2km sprint race anyway (after warm ups), 9 minutes 3 seconds, 12th out of 14 but delerious that all the others were so much younger than me, with the exception  one guy 12 years younger most were 20-40 years younger, those behind me 18 and 28 years younger.

 

Dont think the heat slowed me down a lot but I had stopped running and training in December to finish the final apartments started again about a month ago but could only fit in the odd session, my time last summer would have been 30 seconds quicker, my time after the 3-4 month break was 11 minutes 42 seconds, my reprise was straight into a Test VMA, staggering how quickly you lose form and at my age will never completey regain it.

 

A good level of fitness and general health is needed to cope with the extreme températures it seems to me, and I speak as someone who has been at both extremes and would have been laid out completely by this weather a decade ago.

 

Is it too hot for the dicky birds? i am talking about those rodents of the air the house sparrows, I have been infested for a couple of years after first letting them get on with their nesting under my eaves, big mistake [:)][:(] I got a trap which didn't work and the all you can eat for free buffet just increased the population, today I took delivery of a super duper irresistable and escape proof American trap, trouble is I havn't seen or heard a sparrow for a week now, its nice hearing the other birds song rather then their screeches to mock me but they cant have all gone away, they have been here a couple of years reproducing like rabbits, is it the heat?

[NormanH]

"On a eu  37,2° à Avignon hier (lundi), ça constitue un record pour un mois de juin", a déclaré Emmanuel Demaël, prévisionniste à Météo-France. "Le record précédent, c'était 37,1° le 12 juin 2014." "Des températures très élevées, qui ont atteint ou dépassé le seuil des 35°", ont également été relevées lundi en basse vallée du Rhône, a indiqué le prévisionniste. Il a fait 37° à Nîmes (Gard) et à Carpentras (Vaucluse).

http://www.midilibre.fr/2017/06/13/fortes-chaleurs-record-a-avignon-pour-un-mois-de-juin,1521217.php

But what do they know? albf has spoken....

[Gardengirl]

38C at Alès yesterday according to the Midi Libre:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2017/06/12/ales-la-ville-la-plus-chaude-de-france,1520670.php

[Chancer]

Here in the bitterly cold Nord my thermometer has saved a max reading of 47.2° on my terrace, I think it was last week when I recorded the paviors at that temp and got an infra red reading of 56° on a concrete South facing windowcill.

 

But it doesnt count as summer has not yet started, and the world is flat, all other countries have the BAC, French cuisine is the best in the world etc etc.

[Hoddy]

I am sorry to hear that you had permanent effects from the canicule Norman. I remember it well, I used to spend more time than I needed checking the freezer compartments in our local supermarket.

I seem to remember that every commune was required to produce a plan of what to do in the event of another one so that the elderly and isolated are not so much at risk after so many deaths in 2003. Does anyone know if this was ever done ?

[NormanH]

http://www.midilibre.fr/2017/06/14/la-ville-de-nimes-etouffe-sous-la-canicule,1521405.php

[NormanH]

[quote user="Hoddy"]I am sorry to hear that you had permanent effects from the canicule Norman. I remember it well, I used to spend more time than I needed checking the freezer compartments in our local supermarket.

I seem to remember that every commune was required to produce a plan of what to do in the event of another one so that the elderly and isolated are not so much at risk after so many deaths in 2003. Does anyone know if this was ever done ?[/quote]

They produced

http://solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sante-et-environnement/risques-climatiques/article/le-plan-national-canicule

and it does seem that there are now many fewer deaths, particularly in places such as old peoples' homes.

[idun]

All this talk of the canicule has made me shudder in revulsion. I HATED it when we had heat waves, and we had a few whilst I lived there.

My son is supposed to be going on holiday soon and they are off to the high mountains, where they are hoping it is cooler.... not only a holiday but an escape.

I would always rather head to cooler climbs or take a proper winter holiday than go anywhere hot. I could have gone to the Caribbean last year, but didn't want to, and everyone was incredulous when I said I wasn't going, during an english winter, but that suited me just fine.

I feel for all of you who are suffering. There has been such little rain too from what I have seen on french tv, so I hope that you get some 'good' rain soon.

[mint]

I had a look at the weather map and there is a curious pattern on it.  Apart from an extreme tip on the south eastern bit of France, there is a whole swathe of "yellow" from north to south of the eastern part of the country.

It's like cutting a squarish cake across the middle, with the right (eastern) half in yellow and the left (western) half in green or no particular phénomène.

I have never seen it quite like that before.  At least, for the moment, there are no red bits.

[Gardengirl]

I've keeping an eye on it too, Mint, since our heatwave started. It has gradually moved to cover more of the country, as forecast.

As you say, mercifully no red warnings yet.

It was down to 24.6C outdoors this morning when I checked our weather station in shade on the balcony and 27.4C on the internal unit; not sleeping much at night at the moment..........

I'm very much looking forward to the visit tomorrow by the serviceman to finish repairing our aircon; doors and windows totally closed up during the day and everything opened up at night just isn't working.

[Patf]

It's nice and cool here today - the wind has swung round more to the north, and there's a fresh breeze.

I actually did some gardening this am.

What I remember most about 2003 was the complete lack of rain for about 4 months. I went over to England in August, and it was showery there - bliss!

And poor Twiglet, our son's rescue greyhound which he'd given us, died of heatstroke.

[nomoss]

I hope your aircon is soon repaired, GG.

In order to economise on electricity consumption I run our units with a temperature setting of 25 to 26ºC in hot weather (up to 35ºC outside this week).

The cold pipes in the room units run at a temperature low enough for moisture in the air to condense on them. This considerably reduces the humidity of the air in the rooms, thus reducing the sensation of warmth felt by the body, so it is not necessary to select the same order of temperature that would be chosen in the winter.

The fan speeds of the units are set for maximum, so that even when the units are not cooling, the resulting air movement helps to make the rooms feel comfortable.

The setting chosen depends on where the room temperature is measured by the room units' controls. Mine sense the temperature of the air entering the units, which is near the ceiling, where the temperature tends to be rather higher than lower down. Some units are controlled by a separate room thermostat fixed to the wall, and others by a sensor in the remote control, so some experimentation is necessary to find the best setting for comfort versus economy. In no case should the thermostat be placed so that the air from the unit blows onto it!

In any case, it is not a good idea to set the thermostat to the minimum, as I frequently see has been done by the previous tenant in some hotel rooms. This will not get the room cooler any faster, and will result in it getting too cold, so that going outside is an even bigger shock.