The summer of 2003 was one of the hottest ever in Europe; this led to a health crisis in certain countries as well as considerable impact on crops. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Agriculture (a term which encompasses farming) is the art, science or practice of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals. ...

Change of temperature in Europe from the average.

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2124x1800, 1398 KB) Summary Carte des variations de températures par rapport à la normale lors de la canicule de 2003 en Europe. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2124x1800, 1398 KB) Summary Carte des variations de températures par rapport à la normale lors de la canicule de 2003 en Europe. ...

Country-by-country

France

14,802 people [1], mostly elderly, died in France from heat, according to the country's largest funeral service. France does not commonly have very hot summers, particularly in the northern areas. As a consequence, most people do not know how to react to very high temperatures (for instance, with respect to rehydration), and most homes and retirement homes are not equipped with air conditioning. Furthermore, while there are contingency plans for a variety of catastrophes and natural events, high heat had never been considered a major hazard and so such plans for heat waves did not exist at the time. Rehydration is the pissing of water and electrolytes lost through dehydration. ... Note: in the broadest sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. ...

The heat wave occurred in August, a month in which many people, including government ministers and physicians, are on vacation.

Many bodies were not claimed for many weeks because relatives were on holiday. A refrigerated warehouse outside Paris was used by undertakers, because they didn't have enough space in their own facilities. On September 3, 57 bodies still left unclaimed in the Paris area were buried. The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, as viewed from the Trocadéro This article is about the capital and largest city in France. ... September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, as viewed from the Trocadéro This article is about the capital and largest city in France. ...

That shortcomings of the nation's health system could allow such a death toll is a matter of controversy in France. The administration of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin laid the blame on A death toll is the number of dead as a result of war, violence, accident, natural disaster, extreme weather, or disease. ... Look up Controversy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The President of France, known officially as the President of the Republic (Président de la République in French), is Frances elected Head of State. ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician and the current President of the French Republic. ... The Prime Minister of France (Premier ministre de la France) is the functional head of the Cabinet of France. ... Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin   listen? (born August 3, 1948) is a French conservative politician. ...

• the 35-hour workweek
• family practitioners vacationing in August. (Many companies traditionally closed in August, so people had no choice about when to vacation. Family doctors were still in the habit of vacationing at the same time.)
• families who leave their elderly behind without caring for them.

The opposition as well as many of the editorials of the local press have blamed the administration. Many blamed Health Minister Jean-François Mattei for not coming back from his vacations when the heat wave struck, and his aides for blocking emergency measures in public hospitals (such as the recalling of physicians). A particularly vocal critic was Dr Patrick Pelloux, head of the union of emergency physicians, who blamed the Raffarin administration for ignoring warnings from health and emergency professionals and trying to minimize the crisis. The 35-hour workweek is a measure adopted first in France, in February 2000, under Prime Minister Lionel Jospins administration. ... A general practitioner (GP) or family physician (FP) is a physician who provides primary care. ... This politics-related article is a stub. ... An editorial is a statement or article by a news organization (generally a newspaper) that expresses an opinion rather than attempting to simply report news, as the latter should ideally be done without bias. ...

Jean-François Mattei was not kept as a minister following from the March 31, 2004 cabinet shuffle. March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Italy

20,000 people died in Italy, where temperatures varied between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius in most cities for weeks [2]. A degree Celsius (°C) is a unit of temperature named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742. ...

United Kingdom

In the UK, the highest temperature since records began in 1911 (37.9°C/ 100.2°F) was recorded at London's Heathrow airport on Sunday, August 10, 2003. This was surpassed later the same day at Gravesend, Kent, with a temperature of 38.1°C (100.6°F). 907 people were estimated to have died because of the heat by 15 August. Subsequent temperature analysis revealed an all-time UK temperature high at Brogdale Orchards, one mile SW of Faversham, Kent, attaining 38.5C (101.4F)on 10 August 2003 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... London is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom, and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... London Heathrow Airport (IATA airport code: LHR, ICAO airport code: EGLL, and often simply Heathrow) is the United Kingdoms busiest and best-connected airport. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ...

Portugal

There were extensive forest fires in Portugal. Five per cent of the countryside and ten per cent of the forests were destroyed, an estimated 4,000 km². Eighteen people died in the fires.

Spain

There were 141 deaths in the country. Temperature records in Jerez 45.1º, Badajoz 45.0º, Huelva 43.4º, Gerona 41.2º, Burgos 38.8º, San Sebastián 38.6º, Pontevedra 38.2º and Barcelona 37.3º. In other cities of southern Spain not arrived to the record but the temperatures were higher than 40º: Murcia 41.8º, Toledo 42.0º Sevilla, 45.2º and Cordoba, 46.2º (the hottest in Spain). Jerez de la Frontera (in former times also known as Xerex or Xeres) is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. ... Badajoz (formerly Badajos), the capital of the Spanish province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, is situated close to the Portuguese frontier, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid-Lisbon railway. ... Huelva is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous region of Andalusia. ... Girona (Catalan: Girona, Spanish: Gerona, French: Gérone) is a city located in the northwest of Catalonia, Spain on the confluence of the rivers Ter and Onyar. ... The cathedral Our Lady of Burgos. ... Geography > Europe > Spain > Basque Country > Guipúzcoa San Sebastián with sailboats Statue of Jesus on Urgull Mountain Donostia (in Basque) or San Sebastián (in Spanish) is the capital city of the province of Guipuscoa, in the Spanish autonomous community of Basque Country. ... Pontevedra is a city in northwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Pontevedra in Galicia. ... Barcelona is the second largest city in the Iberian Peninsula, capital city of Catalonia and the province with the same name. ... Murcia () is a city and municipality on the river Segura in southeastern Spain and the capital of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. ... The façade of Toledo cathedral Toledo is a city located in central Spain, the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. ... This article is about the city in Spain. ... Córdoba most commonly means Córdoba, Spain, a famous city in Spain inhabited since the time of ancient Rome, and the seat of the Emir of Córdoba and the Caliph of Córdoba. ...

Germany

In Germany, a record temperature of 40.4 Celsius (104.7 Fahrenheit) was recorded at Roth, Bavaria. With only half the normal rainfall, rivers were at their lowest this century, and shipping could not navigate the Elbe or Danube. Roth is a surname, and may refer to Andrew Roth Ann Roth, American costume designer Arnold Roth, American cartoonist Cecil Roth, British-Israeli historian Cecilia Roth, Argentine actress Christine Evelyn Roth Claudia Roth Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, German lawyer and politician Daniel Roth David Lee Roth Dieter Roth Ed Roth Eli... The Free State of Bavaria  (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... The River Elbe (Czech Labe , Sorbian/Lusatian Łobjo, German Elbe) is one of the major waterways of Central Europe. ... The Danube bend at Visegrád is a popular destination of tourists The Danube (ancient Danuvius) is Europes second-longest river (after the Volga). ...

Switzerland

Melting glaciers in the Alps caused avalanches and flash floods in Switzerland. A new nationwide record temperature of 41.5 Celsius (106.7 °F) was recorded in Grono, Graubünden. Before August 2003 the temperatures never climbed over 40 Celsius. Aletsch glacier, Switzerland A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity. ... The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... {{Infobox Canton|short_name=Grisons| |7,105 km²]]. Only about a third of this is commonly regarded as productive land. ...

Total Dead

As many as 50,000 people died from the 2003 European heat wave.

Effects on crops

Crops suffered from drought in southern Europe, but conversely in the north they actually did very well.

Wheat

The following shortfalls in wheat harvest occurred as a result of the long drought. Species T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp. ...

• France - 20%
• Italy - 13%
• United Kingdom - 12%
• Ukraine - 75% (was this from the heatwave? all I could find was info about an early freeze that year)
• Moldova - 80%

Many other countries had shortfalls of 5-10%, and the EU total production was down by 10 million tonnes, or 10%.

Grape

The heat wave greatly accelerated the ripening of grapes; also, the heat dehydrates the grapes, making for more concentrated juice. By mid-August, the grapes in certain vineyards had already reached their nominal sugar content, possibly resulting in 12°-12.5° wines (see alcoholic degree). Because of that, and also of the impending change to rainy weather, the harvest was started much earlier than usual (e.g. in mid-August for areas that are normally harvested in September). Species Vitis acerifolia Vitis aestivalis Vitis amurensis Vitis arizonica Vitis x bourquina Vitis californica Vitis x champinii Vitis cinerea Vitis x doaniana Vitis girdiana Vitis labrusca Vitis x labruscana Vitis monticola Vitis mustangensis Vitis x novae-angliae Vitis palmata Vitis riparia Vitis rotundifolia Vitis rupestris Vitis shuttleworthii Vitis tiliifolia Vitis... Dehydration (hypohydration) is the removal of water (hydor in ancient Greek) from an object. ... Juice is a fluid naturally contained in animal or plant tissue. ... A vineyard Vineyard with bird netting Wine grapes with netting as protection against birds A vineyard (vignoble in French, vigna or vigneto in Italian, vinha in Portuguese, viña or viñedo in Spanish, Weinberg in German) is a place where grapes are grown for making wine, raisins, or table... Rain falling For other uses see Rain (disambiguation). ... Hay bales after harvest in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany In agriculture, harvesting is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. ...

It is predicted that the wines from 2003, although in scarce quantity, will have exceptional quality, especially in France.

Causes of the heat wave

The heat wave has inevitably been linked to unprecedented weather extremes in other parts of the world taking place in the same general period (such as the worst drought in recorded history in Australia during the previous Australian summer, and massive floods in the USA) and attributed to global warming. A December 2004 article in the journal Nature indeed found climate change to be a contributing factor.[3] If global warming ultimately leads to the slowing or shutting down of the Atlantic current, as some predict, it could, if the future, actually make Europe cooler. Global dimming has also been linked to the heatwave, the theory being that Europe's reduced pollution levels since the turn of the century have reduced dimming's masking effect on global warming. Global mean surface temperatures 1856 to 2005 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades. ... A NASA photograph showing aircraft contrails and natural clouds. ...

The massive death toll in France has been blamed on France's labour laws which contributed to severe staff shortages in the public health and aged care systems during the country's summer vacation, as well as a lack of air-conditioning in French medical facilities. The government of Jacques Chirac and his Minister for Health, Jean-François Mattei, were condemned for failing to issue warnings and not recalling staff back to work as news of mortality spikes were being reported from the health surveillance authorities. Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician and the current President of the French Republic. ...