It's awful, hard to get a breath sometimes. I feel as though this will happen anytime now.
Europe swelters in heatwave
Reuters Friday July 21, 08:28 PM
PARIS (Reuters) - A heatwave in France has probably killed 21 people, including a 15-month-old baby, officials said on Friday, and the rest of Europe also sweltered with no sign of temperatures dropping.
Temperatures were not as high as they had been on previous days but authorities warned people to take precautions.
"Desert London", a headline in Britain's Evening
Standard newspaper said over a photo of a parched Hyde Park on Friday.
"This is not the Sahara or Serengeti -- these remarkable pictures show how London's parks have been turned dry, brown and dusty by the drought," the newspaper said.
A severe drought, said to be the worst in a century in the south of England, is making itself felt and temperatures hit a July record of 36.3 Celsius (97.3 Fahrenheit) earlier this week.
British farmers have begun harvesting wheat fields early because of the dry weather.
In Spain, a sunbather died in Barcelona from the heat and a 37-year-old man died in hospital on Friday after collapsing from heat exhaustion while working in a greenhouse in Almeria on the south coast the day before.
Six people were reported dead from heat-related problems so far this Spanish summer.
As in the last major heatwave in 2003, which in France lasted less than a month but killed around 15,000 people, most of the victims were elderly people or the infirm.
A health ministry official said a baby died in Paris where temperatures hit 37 Celsius earlier this week, but provided no further details.
Of the other victims, 10 were aged 80 or over, four collapsed at their workplace, one collapsed on his way home from work, two died while playing sport, two were homeless, and one was an obese youth "in poor physical condition".
SET TO CARRY ON
Temperatures well above 30 Celsius have been registered across France over the past week and weather forecasters say the heatwave looks set to continue well into next week.
The high death toll stunned health authorities and local officials have worked hard to try to improve their response to heatwaves, supplying air conditioning to retirement homes and broadcasting constant information on how to cope in the heat.
In Italy, temperatures pushed higher on Friday, reaching nearly 39 degree Celsius in Florence, and were expected to increase throughout the weekend. Many cities raised their alert levels to avoid a repeat of 2003, when the heatwave killed 20,000 people.
Emergency workers in Rome said they were handing out water to people standing in queues outside museums and art galleries or waiting in the sun to catch their bus.
A worker collapsed and died of heat-related causes in the island of Sardinia on Thursday, while health services received thousands of calls from elderly people asking for help.
Southern and western Bosnia have been hit by a series of fires as temperatures reached as high as 41 degrees, prompting local fire fighters to ask the army for helicopter assistance.
(Reporting by European bureaux)
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Heatwave death toll rises in US
Severe heat across much of the US has claimed at least 22 lives around the country, officials say.
At least 10 states have suffered heat-related deaths as a swathe of the US has sweltered above 38C (100F), although temperatures are set to fall.
Four people died in Chicago, raising the city's toll to seven.
Other deaths have been reported in Philadelphia, Oklahoma City, Arkansas, Indiana, South Dakota and Tennessee and Wisconsin, AP news agency reports.
Relief ahead
Storms brought down power lines in St Louis, Missouri, cutting air conditioning units and forcing the National Guard to evacuate residents.
Missouri Governor Matt Blunt ordered in the National Guard in a bid to restore electricity and move sweltering citizens to buildings with emergency air-conditioning.
"We can't overstate the danger of this heat," said Francis Slay, mayor of St Louis. "I've never seen this many people without power, this much debris, buildings collapsed, lines down."
The St Louis heat was expected to subside on Friday, with milder temperatures forecast in the days ahead.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...as/5203802.stm
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I know the thyroid problems cause muscle weakness in the lower extremeties and man, some days i really just about fainted!! Finally, my boss allowed me to get a small a.c. unit, for about $90. American. Until then, I would water down my face and head and sit in the fan, for relief. Do you at least have a fan in your office? Have you heard of the cold suits? It's a cooling device you wear under your clothes. I remember hearing about it and did several searches but came up empty. Perhaps someone here has heard of it. Otherwise, I hope you can get an a.c. somehow! 
... cool breeze! oh, oh, thunder!! ... oh, I don't care!!
Originally Posted by Argranade
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