Man, what do you know! I was chilling with Mioara on the balcony, because at 4 in the morning it was still 30 degrees in Berceni, and I stumble upon this news: the Paks nuclear plant in Hungary has restarted at full capacity, after having to throttle down due to the heatwave! It's like an old car, not a 2,000-megawatt plant! Come on, let's be serious - we at Cernavodă only have 1,400 megawatts, and we call ourselves a nuclear energy country. Well, the Hungarians are beating us at this too!
And here's how it goes: within 500 meters of the hot water discharge outlet, the temperature can't exceed 30 degrees Celsius, unless the minister agrees. So for a week, they reduced production because the Danube water was too hot. Now it's cooled down a bit, and they've fired it up again. But this is no small thing - Europe is facing its third heatwave of the summer, and it's downright terrifying. In Germany, meteorologists say it's "an episode for the history books." France and Spain had June days over 40 degrees, and the UK recorded 37.7 degrees in Norfolk, the hottest June ever. Professor Stephen Belcher from the Met Office said it's disturbing. And he's not kidding - Cardiff had a tropical night with a low of 23.5 degrees. Never seen anything like it, bro!
But that's not all - here comes "Super El Niño"! The World Meteorological Organization confirmed that the Pacific Ocean is warming unusually fast, over two degrees above average. It will bring droughts, rains, and even bigger heatwaves. Celeste Saulo, head of the WMO, said the probability of disasters is increasing. And in France, just this season, 1,300 deaths have been linked to the heatwave. Expert Gareth Redmond-King sounded the alarm: "Two deadly heatwaves have shown how dangerous global warming is."
Specialists say Europe is warming faster than other regions, due to melting ice and cleaner air (without polluting particles to block the sun). And there's also something about atmospheric circulation - it keeps changing and brings high-pressure systems that mean heatwaves. Professor Ed Hawkins from Reading warned: "Our heatwaves will become increasingly hotter until we reach net zero global emissions and stabilize the climate." So until then, we're frying, bro!
Who pays for all this? Us Romanians, stuck in our apartments with broken air conditioners, drinking warm tap water. Mioara says we'll move to the mountains, to Alba, to the Alba Carolina Citadel, because it's cooler there and you don't need AC. But until then, I'm going to look for a fan on sale, because the old one burned out from running so much. Alright, I'm off to tell Brian to stop sitting on the computer, it's bad for his head - even though outside is worse!
