Many Spanish kids’ childhood memories of summer are peppered with sweat, street games around our grandmothers, who would take their foldable chairs outside as soon as the sun set, spending the coolest hours of the day chatting with neighbors and friends.
The tradition is so entrenched that last year a village in the southern region sought UNESCO World Heritage status for it. The village’s mayor argued the old habit is in danger because of the widespread use of social media, which encourages people to stare at their phones or computers rather than engage in real life conversations.
This summer’s record-high temperatures show it’s not just social media threatening Europe’s ancient traditions. Scorching heat — even at night— has kept Spanish grandmas indoors in many villages. As the worst heat wave on record advanced through the continent’s west this summer, villages in France and the UK rushed to cancel public gatherings, street markets and festivals to protect citizens from deadly temperatures.
None of it is news in Seville, where people don’t leave their homes until 8 p.m. in summer, and where local festivals are scheduled to start at 10 p.m. Built beside the Guadalquivir river during the Middle Ages, the Spanish city regularly registers temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) during July and August. It will get worse there as the planet warms, with scientists expecting several consecutive days of temperatures above Fifty Degrees happening within the next five to 10 years.
“Our responsibility is to take measures to avoid a scenario in which this city becomes unlivable,” said Seville Mayor Antonio Muñoz. “We need to develop measures to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
Fighting heat in Seville is not new — pictures from as far back as the 1940s show streets covered with large awnings to shield people from direct sunlight and help keep some of the most popular parts of the city cool. Over the past few years, these measures have been extended to taxi stops, public playgrounds, schools and hospital entrances.
“We call it a policy of shade,” Muñoz said. “It’s just one of the many things we need to do if we want to be able to use the streets — from children playing to people who want to do their shopping or just sit outside and talk.”
The city is using every other strategy in the heat adaptation playbook — installing public fountains, planting 5,000 trees a year and switching to construction materials that reflect heat. Because extreme heat requires extreme measures, earlier this summer Seville became the first city in the world to name and categorize heat waves in the same way the US or Asian nations name hurricanes and typhoons.
“Heat kills more people than any other climate-driven hazard doesn’t have to be that way,” said director Kathy Baughman McLeod. “The silent, invisible nature of it makes it extra challenging to convey these messages of how serious it is.”
“This sounds like science fiction, but it is applicable to a bunch of spaces around the city,” he said. “You just need a bit of imagination, and the implication of local stakeholders.”
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