It remains warm, hot days and tropical nights bother us

Humidity and lack of cooling at night put a strain on the body, but “essentially it’s the high temperatures,” emphasizes Wolfgang Schreiber, chief physician of the Austrian Red Cross (ÖRK). The body does have mechanisms to react to heat and cold, but on these days with tropical nights it reaches its limits. This particularly affects the elderly and the very young, “especially the elderly, because they have less body water available,” as it is medically called, and because they are often more vulnerable due to previous illnesses. Seniors and children also sweat less.

“Elderly people, if they cannot delegate shopping, should only go outside in the morning when it is cooler,” says Red Cross chief physician Wolfgang Schreiber. Men also often have less hair on their heads and older women also have thinner hair, so a cap or sun hat is advisable. Headgear is also important for children; direct sunlight on the body should be avoided completely. In general, everyone should avoid too much sun exposure when it is very hot – and: “drink plenty of water – two to three liters during the day,” advises the emergency doctor, but no alcohol if possible.

Thunderstorms occasionally cool things down
Geosphere Austria said thunderstorms will cool things down now and then. It will be “midsummer, but not constant,” said geosphere meteorologist Sabrina Nujic-Marth. The heat could be interrupted by thunderstorms as early as Wednesday. The risk of thunderstorms is lowest in the south and southeast, away from the mountains. In some places, it will not cool down below 22 degrees at night, the maximums from west to east are 27 to 36 degrees, and it will be quite humid.

The weekly outlook
The weather situation on Thursday is similar. Friday is expected to be the warmest day of the week in the east with a maximum of 37 degrees. In the west it is already starting to cool down with maximums of 25 to around 29 degrees. The gap between west and east will continue into the weekend, with considerably cooler temperatures in the west of the country. This front will then be over Austria, but according to the meteorologist there is no sign of a sustained cooling in the east at least. The weather will “probably remain midsummer in the longer term, possibly with a short setback on Sunday”.

The number of warm days has multiplied
The number of warm days with at least 30 degrees has multiplied in Austria in recent decades, according to data from Geosphere. In the period from 1991 to 2020, there were already between 23 warm days in Innsbruck in an average year in the capitals of the federal states – followed by Vienna and Eisenstadt with 21 – and nine in Bregenz. The records are usually more than 40 warm days.

There were seven warm days this year up to (yesterday) Monday in three state capitals, namely Innsbruck, St. Pölten and Eisenstadt. According to the long-term average, there have been six so far in Vienna, Linz and Graz, four in Salzburg and Klagenfurt and in Bregenz, the least with two warm days so far, Geosphere climatologist Hans Ressl reported on Tuesday. This year, the earliest warm day in Austrian measurement history was recorded on April 7 in Bruck an der Mur, ten days before the old record from 1934.

Churches and cooling centers provide relief from heat stress
According to a press release, the Red Cross is offering cooling centres in Vienna in the Millennium City and in the Shopping Centre Nord (SCN). The population can cool down on loungers in air-conditioned rooms and water is also available. There is also relief from heat stress in churches, with an average of ten degrees below the outside temperature, Kathpress reports. In the catacombs and crypts it is even cooler with constant temperatures between ten and 19 degrees.