After enduring a weeklong heat wave with no air-conditioning and little ventilation, the principal said her elementary school had come to feel like a “pressure cooker.”
The temperatures inside the 19th century school building in Paris rose above 86 degrees Fahrenheit, or 30 degrees Celsius. A sports day was canceled. Some staff reported headaches. Kids seemed irritable. In the second-grade class, two children fell asleep at their desks at 1:30 p.m.
“Their bodies gave out,” said Arthur Cattiaux, the second-grade teacher at Clignancourt public elementary school.
The May heat wave that has roasted Europe this week has been a “wake-up call,” said Andreas Flouris, a professor at the University of Thessaly who studies the role of heat in daily lives.
Until relatively recently many of Europe’s schools — unlike hospitals or nursing homes — had been somewhat insulated from the risks of extreme temperatures, if only because school was out by the time the summer heat arrived.
But because of climate change, that is no longer necessarily the case; it’s getting hot sooner in the year.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising by about 1 degree Fahrenheit per decade since the 1990s. This is in part because of changing weather patterns, as well as its proximity to the Arctic, where melting snow and ice lead to more dark surfaces that absorb heat.
Traditionally in Europe, schools were built to withstand cold, not heat, and air-conditioning was rarely necessary. But now the temperature extremes once associated with summer vacation are pushing into the academic year, creating stifling conditions and leading to criticism that Europe’s schools have been slow to contend with the shifting patterns of climate change.
This week, as May heat records tumbled across England and parts of France, a French teachers union shared an internal survey showing that temperatures had eclipsed 82 degrees Fahrenheit in 90 percent of middle and high schools. They accused some administrative districts of putting off investments to reduce heat exposure.
“The world’s seventh-largest economy would rather advise students to bring a water bottle, a hat, and sunscreen and to open the windows than invest in ensuring the safety of staff and students,” the union said.
France’s Education Ministry said that it is “very attentive to issues of comfort in schools,” and cited more than 6,200 renovation projects completed or underway. The government has also drawn up a plan for managing heat waves.
Studies show that hotter temperatures lead to poorer test scores. Heat waves also force difficult decisions about whether to cancel classes. In France this week, few did, though thousands closed during a hot stretch last June. Many British schools were on break this week.
The changes, both in Europe and globally, are driving not just higher temperature extremes, but also a longer period in which those extremes are possible.
Between 1979 and 2000, daily average temperatures in the northern hemisphere would rise above 64 degrees Fahrenheit on May 25 and remain above that threshold — a decent proxy for the warm season — until Sept. 27.
But last year, temperatures stayed above 64 degrees Fahrenheit from May 13 until Oct. 7, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute. In 2024, they remained above that mark from May 14 until Oct. 11, a difference of nearly four extra weeks.
“If you warm the climate, you’re bound to have a longer stretch” of heat, said Carlo Buontempo, the director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. “It’s not surprising, but it’s quite remarkable that it has shifted so much.”
For schools, the most obvious solution is air-conditioning. But Europeans tend to be more air-conditioning-averse than Americans, citing its energy costs or environmental downsides. Many southern Europeans have adages about health risks from swinging between hot outdoor and colder indoor temperatures.
Marcello Pacifico, the president of an Italian education trade union, wrote in an email that only 6 percent of Italian schools have air-conditioning, and described the schools as “collapsing under the heat.” He said Italy’s climate was becoming “something almost subtropical.”
Last year, a French public agency, in a report about climate risks at schools, recommended steps that don’t strain the grid, like adding shading or greenery. It described air-conditioning as a “last resort.”
But air-conditioning also has its high-profile backers. Marine Le Pen, a French far right leader, has raised the idea of a “major air conditioning equipment plan,” and proposed a bill to make units mandatory in certain public spaces.
The consequences of extreme heat tend to hit with inequity. That’s true at a global level, where school disruptions hit low- and middle-income countries dealing with floods, heat waves and droughts.
But the inequities can also be true inside a city. At Clignancourt elementary school, in Paris, most of the children live in public housing, said the principal, Anne Sade-Bayol. Even if classes were canceled and children were sent home, they’d still be dealing with “unbearable heat,” she said.
The school had already received one renovation to better contend with the scorching temperatures, adding a fountain and greenery in the courtyard.
But by drop-off time one morning this week, it was already 25 Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). And kids were heading indoors.
“I can’t say nothing has been done,” Ms. Sade-Bayol said. “But as for the rest, the buildings are so old. We need an air-conditioned room.”
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