Living in a record breaking heat wave

June 28, 2026

Living in a record breaking heat wave

Definition heatwave: A period of minimum 5 consecutive days where the temperature rises above 25C and that includes a minimum of 3 days with 'tropical' temperatures of above 30C.
(definition according to Belgian and the Dutch meteorological national services)

Fact: Since 17/06 the temperature has been every day above 25C and 7 out of those 11 days so far have been above 30C. The last couple of days we've had temperatures between 35C and 39,97C (in Kleinen-Brogel) and a code Red for temperature declared for the first time in the eastern provinces while the rest of the country has been days under code Orange.
While currently temperatures finally dip a little to bearable levels between 25-30C, the daily maximum temparatures will not go below under 25C in the next 10 days predictions. On the contrary, within 10 days we'll rise above 30C again which could make this in a 24 day heatwave.
An online metereologist just joked on social media "for people worried that a new heatwave is approaching: you first need to get out of a heatwave to be able to get a new one".

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Ugh...what the hell is this. A hell yes. Although we cope better than I anticipated at first. Since I'm tired and warm, don't expect this post to be a very coherent piece of text but I'll post some thoughts on the last 10 days of heat:

I have a vivid memory of picking up the boys from the cities playground services after work in July 2019 when some locations in Belgium reached the insane temperature of 40C. I had been working from home in the basement since the office couldn't cool down anymore and we had received an adapted planning from the Playground : the little children were put in a hall with some water buckets nearby and they watched a movie as to stay as much immobile in the shade as possible.
When I went to pick them up, I opened the front door and the heat of an burning oven hit my face. I hurt! The road seemed to melt and I could visibly see the heat rise up. I had to walk a full 300m to go and pick up the boys and it was a walk of hell.
I came home and had nasea and felt unwell and scared and didn't know where to find comfort.

....

So seeing the daily temperature prediction creep up each day last week and showing off new predictions of local 40C records, scared me. I was so nervous at the start of the week!
I was worried about my mom and so many people not having cool places around.
We renovated our house in 2016 and rebuilt the top floors and its roof. We had a discussion with our architect about the type of insulation material to slow down heat entrance on hot days. We didn't follow his advice (although the roof got thickly insulated!) and knowing that has popped up on my mind frequently in the last decade. Ha, with hindsight. How different does climate already feel in 2026 versus 2016.
We did install a powerful AC a few years later though in Kabouter's room (under roof , facing south). It is only there and that seemed sufficient. It should be able to blow into the hallway and as a result also partially cool along Beertje's room. And we thought "if ever there is such a heat stress, we can all camp in the cool room of Kabouter for a night or so". Kabouter realised this week that that was no joke but a potential reality in the future. Also Beertje has been whining over the last weeks why he didn't get AC in his room. Well once again...with hindsight. If a future renovation ever comes up, it's quite likely we check if we can extend and apply more AC in more rooms for sure. While 10 years ago we laughed about it and said that surely we'd cope those 2-3 hot days a year, I am now convinced that climate change has forced us in a new reality and that future proof homes in Belgium do require AC.

...and of course our cities need more green, more trees, our houses need more insulation, outside shading etc!! That first. But it's not going to be sufficient anymore.

We also use the old mobile AC we had first in Kabouter's room now in our room. Not as powerful and efficient but so necessary for our sleep in these circumstances at the moment.
Our basement (and the one at my mom's house) is still a blessing. While reaching record high temperatures, we manage to stay really comfortable in the basement. So nice to have our offices and a play room there.
Our house is also equipped with outdoor sunscreens at the windows which are lowered almost all summer long. It does make a difference of 3-5C inside! Our big garden doors however felt like a hot radiator in the living room when approaching , so Jan has now also bought and installed a shade cloth hanging in the garden, shielding our doors a bit more from the sun than before.
Just mentally even, seeing more shade and less direct sunlight makes a difference.
Beertje's school closed in the afternoons. It's the first time I heard in Belgium school closures due to heat. I also heard a lot of hobby's got cancelled.
Honestly: with all my fear and all written above, we managed to stay comfortable, managing to sleep with (partially) cooled rooms and working/playing in comfortable temperatures in the basement. While some parts of the house are very uncomfortable to me, I can cool off. And that made this week in the end quite managable and not so scary to us after all. Our house might not be ideally equipped but the changes of the last decade have helped.
To my surprise my mother and mother-in-law seemed to cope as well...locked up in the house, also spending more time in basements of spare guest rooms... They were not enjoying themselves but seemed to cope better than I feared.
Spending most of the day in a closed off house, children home from school, carefully planning and calculating when and how to get outdoors, doing indoor calm activities, phoning and checking in with other people to see how they are doing...

it ressembled a bit the first days of the pandemic lockdown. Even though it was totally different of course.
You do get used to more heat. A week ago I felt uncomfortable in the living room at 27C. Now I feel it nicely cool there with 27C.....

We skipped judo practise on Wednesday and Thursday as we thought it would be insanely unhealthy...and then we went in temperatures of 35C anyhow on Saturday.

I notice we spend less time indoor as time goes on. I guess our bodies adjust to some level and our threshold changes a bit.

And what in the first days was very hot weather is now a "thank goodness we only get a cool 30C today" relief. All is relative!
People get very creative in shielding their houses from the sun. You see many windows with aluminum foil or outside blankets etc to shade.

In the early mornings you see also entire buildings and streets with all windows collectively open. We're all in this together and joined in a common ritual.
I have a fine deodorant but it's not made for tropical temperatures. It doesn't last. We now need "tropical adapted" brands in Belgium.
Thank goodness I never cut my hair short in the summer but pony tail length. I am wearing my hair in a messy pony tail non stop. I sleep with the pony tail...I can't imagine having hair touch my cheeks or neck or so. I wonder if it's good to sleep with a pony tail for multiple days?
I have rolled my eyes so much at Jans impulse buy of a ice cube machine years ago. Never thought it would become such a valuable much used item in our kitchen.
I've also cursed at his impulsive buy of a big drying rack last year which takes a lot of place and ended up against the wall of the guest bath room (3 floors up from the washing machine and 2 floors up from where our closets and washing baskets are). Ugh what a wrong buy, we are dryer people.

...until this week. I've now officially used my drying rack and dried 2 loads of wash in the the sauna that the guest bathroom is, while ensuring not to turn the dryer in our cool basement.
I read somewhere online (without sources and proof) that Europe counts more heath deaths than the USA gun deaths.
The WHO did just publish that we probably count 1300 heath deaths in this heath wave. It makes me ponder though.