page_title: 2003 European heat wave
section_title: France
hierarchical_section_title: 2003 European heat wave / By country / France
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La canicule l'été 2003 sur la Loire à Nevers.
context_page_description: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540. France was hit especially hard. The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe. Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000.
  The predominant heat was recorded in July and August, partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds.
context_section_description: In France, 14,802 heat-related deaths (mostly among the elderly) occurred during the heat wave, according to the French National Institute of Health. France does not commonly have very hot summers, particularly in the northern areas, but eight consecutive days with temperatures of more than 40 °C (104 °F) were recorded in Auxerre, Yonne in early August 2003. Because of the usually relatively mild summers, most people did not know how to react to very high temperatures (for instance, with respect to rehydration), and most single-family homes and residential facilities built in the last 50 years were not equipped with air conditioning. Furthermore, while contingency plans were made for a variety of natural and man-made catastrophes, high temperatures had rarely been considered a major hazard.
  The catastrophe occurred in August, a month in which many people, including government ministers and physicians, are on holiday. Many bodies were not claimed for many weeks because relatives were on holiday. A refrigerated warehouse outside Paris was used by undertakers as they did not have enough space in their own facilities. On 3 September 2003, 57 bodies were still left unclaimed in the Paris area, and were buried.
  The high number of deaths can be explained by the conjunction of seemingly unrelated events. Most nights in France are cool, even in summer. As a consequence, houses (usually of stone, concrete, or brick construction) do not warm too much during the daytime and radiate minimal heat at night, and air conditioning is usually unnecessary. During the heat wave, temperatures remained at record highs even at night, breaking the usual cooling cycle. Elderly persons living by themselves had never faced such extreme heat before and did not know how to react or were too mentally or physically impaired by the heat to make the necessary adaptations themselves. Elderly persons with family support or those residing in nursing homes were more likely to have others who could make the adjustments for them. This led to statistically improbable survival rates with the weakest group having fewer deaths than more physically fit persons; most of the heat victims came from the group of elderly persons not requiring constant medical care, and/or those living alone, without frequent contact with immediate family.
  According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2018 Assessment Report, "Reports from France (Fouillet et al., 2008) concluded that most of the extra deaths occurred in elderly people (80% of those who died were older than 75 years). Questions were raised at the time as to why this event had such a devastating effect (Kosatsky, 2005). It is still not clear, but one contributing factor may have been the relatively mild influenza season the year before. Recent studies have found that when the previous year’s winter mortality is low, the effect of summer heat is increased (Rocklov and Forsberg, 2009; Ha et al., 2011) because mild winters may leave a higher proportion of vulnerable people (Stafoggia et al., 2009). Most studies of heat have been in high-income countries, but there has been work recently in low- and middle-income countries, suggesting heterogeneity in vulnerability by age groups and socioeconomic factors similar to that seen in higher-income settings (Bell et al., 2008b; McMichael et al., 2008; Pudpong and Hajat, 2011)."
  That shortcomings of the nation's health system could allow such a death toll is a controversy in France. The administration of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin laid the blame on families who had left their elderly behind without caring for them, the 35-hour workweek, which affected the amount of time doctors could work, and family practitioners vacationing in August. Many companies traditionally closed in August, so people had no choice about when to vacation. Family doctors were still in the habit of vacationing at the same time. It is not clear that more physicians would have helped, as the main limitation was not the health system, but locating ol
caption: Loire river almost dry near Nevers.
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