THE HIGH-SPEED TRAIN between Paris and Nice ground to a halt just outside Lyon earlier this week due to an electrical fault.

With temperatures above 30 °C, air conditioning failed, and passengers quickly became overheated, forcing railway staff to open the doors and let them seek shelter in whatever shade they could find along the railway line.

Police and firefighters distributed cold drinks and aid during the four-hour delay. This is one of thousands of incidents triggered by the extreme unseasonal heat dome that has brought scorching May temperatures across Europe.

Rail systems worldwide are vulnerable to heatwaves, as high temperatures can cause railway lines to buckle, overhead electric cables to sag and signalling equipment to fail. Even in Ireland, high temperatures can disrupt our rail system, as acknowledged by Irish Rail in its 2024 climate adaptation strategy.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Normally, heat records, like records in athletics, are broken by tiny margins, yet this week, Ireland’s all-time May temperature record was smashed by 2C, with the mercury hitting 30.5 °C at Shannon Airport on Tuesday, 26th. In sporting terms, this is equivalent to the all-but-impossible feat of running the 100 metres in under eight seconds. Our weather systems are now, for all intents and purposes, on steroids.

While soaring temperatures in Ireland are generally greeted as an informal national holiday, elsewhere, they spell misery and death. This week, India’s capital, Delhi, recorded its hottest May night in 14 years, with minimum nighttime temperatures of 32.4 °C, while daytime temperatures topped 48.2 °C in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, with multiple heatstroke deaths recorded and hospitals inundated.

India experienced extreme heat in recent days. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Electricity consumption is surging across India, as millions turn to air conditioning to help cope with lethal temperatures, but power cuts are frequent, and tens of millions have no access whatever to air cooling.

Heat-related deaths have increased by around one third across Europe in just the last two decades; the continent as a whole is heating more than twice as fast as the global average, with experts warning of hundreds of thousands of annual heat deaths across Europe by 2100, representing a severe public health crisis.

Extreme temperatures are now affecting almost every country on Earth, and the rapid rate of heating is........

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