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國際時事跟讀 Ep. L232: Record Heat Shuts the Louvre, Empties the Eiffel Tower

Highlights 主題摘要

• Europe's most severe heatwave on record forced Paris landmarks to close, as France logged its hottest day since measurements began in 1947.
• A stubborn omega block trapped scorching North African air over the continent, pushing temperatures far above the seasonal average.
• France counted roughly 2,025 excess deaths during the June heatwave, a toll that shows how ill-prepared much of Europe remains for extreme heat.

When the Louvre turned visitors away in late June, it was not because of another daring heist, but because the world's most-visited museum could no longer keep its galleries safe from the sun. Between 24 and 28 June, it closed two hours early, at 4 p.m., with last admission pulled forward to 2 p.m. Across the Seine, the Eiffel Tower shuttered its summit and stopped admitting visitors in the early afternoon; ticketless tourists were told to postpone, while those already booked had their afternoon slots refunded automatically. Paris, built to hold warmth in its dense limestone streets and zinc rooftops, had become an oven.

羅浮宮在六月下旬把遊客擋在門外，原因並非又一起大膽的竊案，而是這座全球參觀人數最多的博物館，已經沒辦法容納更多遊客進場躲避烈日。六月二十四日到二十八日，館方提前兩小時、在下午四點閉館，最後入場時間也往前挪到下午兩點。而在塞納河的另一頭，艾菲爾鐵塔也關閉頂層，過了中午沒多久就停止放行，沒買票的遊客被請回、改天再來，已經訂票的人則收到午後時段的自動退款。巴黎這座用密實石灰岩街道和鋅皮屋頂鎖住熱氣的城市，成了一座大烤爐。

The closures were the visible edge of a far larger emergency. Météo-France recorded 24 June as the nation's hottest day since records began in 1947, with a national average of 30.0°C narrowly beating the mark set a day earlier, and highs near 44°C in the west. Meteorologists blamed an omega block, a pattern named for the Greek letter it traces in the atmosphere, which pinned hot, dry Saharan air over the continent while low-pressure systems on either side held it in place. With overnight temperatures offering no relief, the heat plateaued at what authorities called a sustained peak of severity.

閉館只是這場大規模災情的冰山一角。法國氣象局把六月二十四日列為 1947 年開始記錄以來全國最熱的一天，全國均溫攝氏三十度，以些微差距刷新前一天剛創下的紀錄，西部最高溫逼近攝氏四十四度。氣象學家把矛頭指向歐米茄阻塞，這種天氣型態因為在大氣裡畫出的形狀像希臘字母 Ω 而得名，它把撒哈拉來的乾熱空氣壓在歐陸上空，兩側的低壓系統又把它牢牢卡住。入夜後的氣溫也毫無緩解，高溫釘死在當局所稱的持續嚴峻高峰。

The human cost mounted quickly. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told a crisis meeting that at least 40 people had drowned within a week, most of them young, as swimmers sought relief in unsupervised rivers and canals. France later estimated roughly 2,025 excess deaths over the June episode, many among older people in homes without air conditioning, an echo of the 2003 heatwave that killed an estimated 15,000. Only about a fifth of European homes have air conditioning, and much of the housing was designed to trap heat rather than shed it.

傷亡數字很快往上堆。法國總理勒科努在一場危機會議上說，短短一週至少有四十人溺斃，多半是年輕人，他們為了消暑跳進沒有救生員看管的河流和運河。法國後來估算，光是六月這一波熱浪就比平時多造成 2,025 人死亡，其中不少是住在沒有冷氣家中的長者，讓人想起 2003 年那場熱浪，當時估計奪走一萬五千人。全歐洲只有大約五分之一的家戶有冷氣，而且很多房子當初蓋的時候就是為了留住熱氣、而不是為了散熱。

The disruption rippled far beyond the museums. Eurostar cancelled cross-Channel trains, British rail operators imposed heat speed limits to guard against buckling tracks, and a Swiss power company throttled a nuclear reactor when river water ran too warm to cool it safely. Even before Paris could catch its breath, forecasters warned of a fresh heatwave sweeping into the Île-de-France from 5 July. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating at roughly twice the global rate, and Lecornu convened a special cabinet meeting to draw lessons from a season in which records were falling almost nightly.

災情的餘波遠遠不只博物館。歐洲之星取消跨海峽班次，英國鐵路業者祭出高溫限速、防止軌道受熱挹曲，瑞士一家電力公司也因為河水太燙、冷卻不了，把一座核子反應爐的輸出調降。巴黎都還沒喘過氣，氣象單位又預警新一波熱浪會從七月五日起湧入法蘭西島。歐洲是全球暖化最快的大陸，升溫速度大約是全球平均的兩倍，勒科努為此召開特別內閣會議，想從這個幾乎每晚都在破紀錄的夏天記取教訓。

Keyword Drills 關鍵字

1. Turn away [verb phrase, to refuse to let someone enter]: The staff turned away guests at the door.
2. Plateau [verb, to reach a stable level and stay there]: Prices rose fast, then plateaued.
3. Excess deaths [noun phrase, deaths beyond the normal expected number]: The heatwave caused thousands of excess deaths.
4. Ripple [verb, to spread outward in effects]: The bad news rippled through the market.
5. Throttle [verb, to reduce the power or output of something]: They throttled the engine to cool it down.

Reference article:

1. https://wmo.int/media/news/record-breaking-heat-spreads-through-europe

2. https://www.npr.org/2026/06/23/g-s1-129586/france-red-heat-wave-alert

3. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/23/about-20-drown-in-france-trying-to-escape-heatwave-sweeping-much-of-europe

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_European_heatwaves

5. https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/news/in-paris/articles/348262-will-the-heatwave-return-in-july-in-ile-de-france-the-latest-updates