Much of France was set to experience temperatures of around 40C on Tuesday, after records were shattered on Monday
Forty people have drowned in France over the past days as they sought to cool down to escape record heat, the prime minister said on Tuesday, as a heatwave swept across much of Europe.
Speaking ahead of an emergency meeting on the heatwave, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said: “A sad scourge when it comes to drownings, as the latest figures just reported to us show 40 deaths since June 18, most of them young people.”
Across France, people have been jumping into canals and rivers to cool off. French sports minister Marina Ferrari said she understood the urge to escape the heat but warned against swimming in unauthorized or dangerous areas.
okay, that sounds like a very low and very high number of drownings at the same time. quick and dirty analysis. 40 deaths due to one cause in one day is alarming even when your metropolitan population is 66 million. Normally there are 1,000 drowning deaths per year. Ish. That’s 1/25th the budgeted drownings for the country in a single [time period oopsie misread the article. maybe 5 days? point still stands]. Like, 40 is a small absolute number but per capita per [short time period] it’s a LOT.
hence the government emergency meeting.