Some don’t like it hot: melting roads, raging wildfires and an energy crunch

By Bo Franklin

Spaniards know that the way to live with sweltering summers is to down tools during the hottest part of the day, then come to life during the long, cooler evenings. That folk wisdom has wilted in the heatwave engulfing western Europe. In the past week Madrid has sweated through five noches tórridas (torrid nights), the official term for a nocturnal temperature above 25°C. On Sunday the city held a minute’s silence for a street cleaner who died from heatstroke.