To escape the heat wave in Portugal, residents and visitors alike had few options, one of which was to climb the peak of the Portuguese equivalent of Carrauntoohil.
Mount Foia, at 900 meters, is just below the highest peak in Ireland. It is also one of only three areas in Portugal to have avoided temperatures above 30C in recent days.
The other two were high, exposed peninsulas on the west and southwest coasts.
Every other district in the country hit 30C or higher. In fact, 88pc of the districts reached 35C or above, 40pc reached 40C and 15pc reached 42C or above.
In one district, it climbed to 44.6C.
No wonder the country has declared an eight-day state of alert, even if staying vigilant in those relentless temperatures – rarely below 20°C at night – is a challenge in itself.
Neighboring Spain has similar problems, with a forecast of 44-47C for the next few days in places.
France and Italy are also very hot and the story changes little as you go further into Central Europe.
Wildfires, water shortages, heat exhaustion and malfunctioning utilities make coping with the heat wave all the more difficult.
Air quality has also taken a dive. Copernicus, the EU’s air surveillance service, shows surface ozone concentrations above safe levels in many areas.
Forget the protective layer in the atmosphere that protects us from the sun, surface ozone is different and creates a filthy smog of exhaust fumes and other pollutants hanging in the air at perfect heights to breathe.
But you don’t even have to go as far as those vacation hotspots to experience extreme temperatures.
Across the water, the UK’s Met Office has issued a “danger to life” warning in England and Wales until next Tuesday.
“There are likely to be adverse health effects for the entire population, not limited to those most vulnerable to extreme heat, which could lead to potentially serious illness or death,” it said.
By next Monday, temperatures in London could soar as high as 40°C, which would snag the UK’s all-time record of 38.7°C from a bass it claimed in 2019.
Ireland is also poised for warmer than average weather with temperatures expected to be in the mid to high 20s over the course of Sunday and Monday, “possibly over 30C locally on Sunday”.
Compared to much of the rest of Europe, that’s benign, but in a country that’s melting at just over 20°C, it’s going to come with its own set of challenges.
What’s happening across Europe and why Ireland is escaping the worst is explained by Met Éireann meteorologist Paul Downes.
The main problem is the behavior of the “Azores High”, a large year-round high pressure area in the Atlantic Ocean, closer to Europe than the US.
In winter, it can block the rain that normally comes with the jet stream coming in from the west, leaving mainland Europe drier as it pushes that rain toward us.
People visit the Rhone Glacier covered with blankets to protect it from the sun in Switzerland. Photo: Urs Flueeler/Keystone via AP)
In the summer it can have a similar blocking effect, especially if it behaves unusually, which is the case now.
Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research published a study a few weeks ago showing that it has become more volatile in recent decades.
Currently, it has expanded and shifted north, interrupting the jet stream and slowing everything down.
“High pressure is still building over Europe,” said Mr Downes.
“On top of that, the land is warming, which is dried up land right now, so it’s warming up very quickly.
“The fact that the continent is such a large landmass will also help generate that high pressure.”
When the country warms and that heat gets trapped in a stationary weather system, temperatures intensify and create a heat plume that makes conditions all the more brutal.
Complicating matters further, the Azores are expected to retreat to mainland Europe in the coming days, interacting with a low-pressure system pushing Portugal away and pushing very warm air up over Ireland.
“The jet stream generally has a flow that goes from west to east. That’s why we are more influenced by the Atlantic conditions and we generally have a milder maritime climate,” said Mr Downes.
“But when it flips and we let air flow from the southeast and east, we generally get this kind of situation with extreme temperatures, whether it’s hot in the summer or cold in the winter.”
By extreme he means extremely Irish style, so temperatures are unlikely to drift well into the 30s, but this weekend will bring warmer weather than we’re generally comfortable with.
“We all love the heat, but when you start to get into the 20th and 30th centuries without air conditioning, it’s not the easiest thing to deal with.”
The forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday is for thunderstorms and a return to more normal summer temperatures.
But for a broader understanding of what’s happening, retrospectives rather than predictions are most revealing.
Scientists have been warning for years that climate change would bring higher and more persistently high temperatures, and their modeling proves correct.
While Spain and Portugal have often experienced intense hot spells, parts of Spain had temperatures in the 40s in May this year – much earlier than normal and much too early for comfort.
The wider heat wave started in June and there has been little relief since then.
According to Met Éireann, “While extremely hot weather occurs within natural climate variability, the types of temperature extremes we see in Europe are directly affected by climate change.
“June 2022 was Europe’s second warmest on record and the warmest in the US. The eight hottest Junes on record worldwide have all occurred in the past eight years.”
Keith Lambkin, Met Éireann climatologist, said: “As a result of climate change, we expect heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense than in the past. This increase in heat increases the likelihood of temperature record breaking.”