r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
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u/JonJackjon Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

I think its simple. I would compare it to the first time someone finds they need to wear glasses. The natural tendency is to deny needing them until it gets so bad you have no choice.

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u/DonaldMerwinElbert Jun 26 '26

People also forget how much lower in latitude the US is.
Seattle in the north is at about the same latitude as southern Germany.
Also, both summers and winters are a lot milder in Europe's climate because of other geographical factors.
We truly did not need AC until recently.

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u/APigInANixonMask Jun 26 '26

The relative mildness of the climate in Europe is crazy to me. Where I live in Minnesota is about the same latitude as Milan. Their average high of 87°F (30.6°C) in July is just a bit higher than the 84°F (28.9°C) average here, but their average January low of 32°F (0°C) is quite a bit warmer than the 9°F (-12.8°C) average low here. We hit -20°F (-28.9°C) this past January and it's supposed to be 93°F (33.9°C) next week! 

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u/PleaseGreaseTheL Jun 26 '26

keep in mind oceans GREATLY mediate climate/temperatures, and most of Europe is way closer to an oceanic coastline than most of the USA. The Great Lakes help a bit but they don't perform nearly the same level of climate control as an actual ocean does.

Europe is, more than anything, a very maritime continent.

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u/Dragoness42 Jun 26 '26

Not to mention the Atlantic currents bringing in warmer waters.

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u/TorchThisAccount Jun 26 '26

The Atlantic is what keeps Europe from being an ice cube. They would have weather more like Canada without it. What most Americans don't realize is that America is closer the Italy's or North African latitude. The bottom of Britain is the top of America, excluding Alaska.

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u/OneBigBug Jun 26 '26

The Atlantic is what keeps Europe from being an ice cube. They would have weather more like Canada without it.

You probably mean the Gulf Stream, pretty specifically?

I kind of struggle to imagine it as a sensible hypothetical to suggest what Europe would be like without the Atlantic as a whole...Like, maybe it would be colder, but it would also...probably be really different in a bunch of relatively hard to predict ways...

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u/TorchThisAccount Jun 26 '26

I kind of struggle to imagine it as a sensible hypothetical to suggest what Europe would be like without the Atlantic as a whole..

What I'd meant is that if the north Atlantic drift wasn't bringing warm water from the Caribbean, and instead Britain and France where hit with cold water from Newfoundland and Greenland, that Europe would be more like Canada in temperature.

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u/mastercat202 Jun 26 '26

Closest point of america to Africa is Maine. At least north America. Slso, Europe steals our warm water. We nees to build a wall to keep our warm water.

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u/MidnightRiders2009 Jun 26 '26

The Great Lakes are in polar votex territory and also bring lake effect snow (for people close enough to the lakeshore to get it). They definitely don't make the winters warmer at all.

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u/cohrt Jun 26 '26

Yeah. As a NYer the lakes make winter worse if anything.

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u/WulfZ3r0 Jun 26 '26

I'm a 2 hour drive from the Atlantic right now and today is supposed to be 105F with the humidity factored in, 94F without. It's not even the hottest part of summer yet.

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u/PleaseGreaseTheL Jun 26 '26

Someone else correctly pointed out that it matters if the ocean is on your east, or on your west, because there's directionality to things like the jet stream and seasonal winds. San Diego is further south than most of the country and it's 70 degrees atm. It gets winds blowing in from the ocean.

The American South gets winds blowing in from... The hot southern interior. Savannah, Georgia is over 90f right now, but it's a coastal city like San Diego is.

Europe is primarily surrounded on the east/south/north by oceans, so it normally gets the effects of winds blowing in from the ocean. This heatwave is extremely unusual historically. It's 98f in Paris right now, but by Monday it'll be back down to 80f.

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u/Careful_Farmer_2879 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

It also matters if ocean or land is east/west of you.

The jet stream flows from west to east. Are you receiving air affected by the ocean? Plains? Mountains? It all matters, even in terms of how much the temp fluctuates between daytime and nighttime.

This is why deserts tend to get cold at night.

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u/OneBillPhil Jun 26 '26

Meanwhile in Atlantic Canada we get punishing winters on our islands and coastlines despite being further south.  

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u/fre-ddo Jun 26 '26

A lot of mountains around too that break up weather systems

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u/Meet_James_Ensor Jun 27 '26

Uh, I wouldn't say the Great Lakes moderate the weather.  

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u/PleaseGreaseTheL Jun 27 '26

It's more complicated than either/or. They moderate overall trends by absorbing and slowly releasing heat and changing the wind patterns, but specific things happen or circumstances align that can cause extreme weather to happen around them. Just like how Europe can also have insane heat waves :p

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u/HoloandMaiFan Jun 29 '26

In the case of north America and Europe Mountains play a huge role in climate. Mountains in the whole American continent run north to South, which effectively funnel arctic air during the winter and tropical air in the summer which leads to extreme weather. You combine that with the westerlies win patterns, and you have all the oceanicly regulated wind being used up by the west coast with all the moisture being lost as it crosses the Rockies, the. It travels over thousands of miles of great plains baking in hot summer soil or frozen winter soil and you get extreme weather in the north east and mid-west regions, it's also why tornado alley exist and why the American southwest is a desert. Whereas Europe, until recently with climate change, was able to rely on the temperature regulation of the Atlantic because their mountains run east to west which funnels the regulated Atlantic air across the whole continent and blocks polar wind.

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u/weeyummy1 Jun 26 '26

Why don’t the Great Lakes temper the climate as much? They’re almost as big right?

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u/PleaseGreaseTheL Jun 26 '26

Uh... No?

They're big but we're talking geographical sizes here. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Map_of_USA_with_state_and_territory_names_2.png

They're a lot smaller than the Atlantic Ocean lol

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u/Canotic Jun 26 '26

It's the gulf stream. It keeps us nice and warm. If it ever goes away, half of europe will probably collapse.

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u/OneBillPhil Jun 26 '26

I’m in Newfoundland, Canada, just eye balling a map it looks like we are further south than the UK and Paris. We haven’t had a day in June over 20 C. 

Our weather is generally cold but even we are getting a lot of 30 degree days in July and August. I got that sweet A/C though so I’m laughing. 

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u/Heavy-Construction90 Jun 26 '26

So youre telling me that the center of Lake wobegone might actually thaw this year!?

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u/Meet_James_Ensor Jun 27 '26

Every day will be above average

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u/unafraidrabbit Jun 26 '26

I don't get how this is supposed to be so eye opening as though latitude is the only thing that determines climate.

I was particularly aware of this as the Bent Dick of Massachusetts blocked the Gulf Stream's warm water from getting to NH beaches.

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u/mcclelc Jun 26 '26

Exactly, and the Midwest is used to extremes, if not even more so. I am not native, but keep being told that the winters have turned tame. When it was negative temperatures for a week this past winter, apparently that was more "like the good ole days"

This has made me all the more open to alternative green energies. US needs to catch up with Europe with solar, wind, hydro power (at least, the Midwest does).

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u/parker2020 Jun 26 '26

Polar vortex and the jet stream is Minnesota’s issue

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u/handlesscombo Jun 26 '26

Probably due to elevation differences and weather effects from your lakes

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u/I_like_boxes Jun 26 '26

Where I grew up in the PNW, we didn't actually need AC either. Summers would have one or two weeks where temps were in the mid to high 90s. I had the hottest room in the house and my parents would let me sleep on the floor of their room, where they had a window AC, when it was too hot. I rarely took them up on that because nights were usually okay.

I still live in the PNW, and we've consistently had heat waves that exceeded 100 F (~38 C) every summer for the last few years. I bought some Camellia sinensis plants to make tea several years ago, and then we had a heat wave a few weeks later where temps reached 115 F (~46 C) and that killed them. RIP. I even moved them inside around noon, well before we reached the hottest part of the day, but it was too late. Until recently, you could actually still see damage on plants from that particular heat wave; the south side of many trees and bushes died and they took years to recover.

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u/afrizzfrizz Jun 26 '26

I remember that. Many bushes and trees in the PNW are still recovering. I had an arborist tell me to plant Northern California native trees in the PNW because it’s just going to get hotter.

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u/kimbergo Jun 26 '26

My parents built a house in the PNW a decade ago. Super eco, modern build, radiant heat flooring with no central HVAC at all. It was designed to stay warm in winter and cool in the summer with insulation and correctly facing windows, etc. Only a few years after they moved in, they had to install mini splits because summer temps frequently got in the 90s.

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u/devnullopinions Jun 26 '26

Yeah we remodeled our house a few years ago in Seattle and replaced or furnace with a heat pump which can also function as an air conditioner.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/I_like_boxes Jun 26 '26

What I'm talking about is regional and is mostly unrelated to development. The heat island effect is certainly real, but this is separate from that.

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u/Sudden_Skill_7764 Jun 27 '26

Waves from just north of Yellowstone. When my husband built his cabin in the 90s, he never thought we'd need AC. Past few summers it's been in the 100s from July-October, and often doesn't get cool at night anymore. My house in town is okay, thanks to the new insulation in the attic and solar panels, but even so, ugh.

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u/henchman171 Jun 26 '26

Scotland’s like James Bay Hudson Bay in Canada

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u/mariekeap Jun 26 '26

Canada is fairly far north with an infamously cold harsh climate and nearly everyone has some kind of AC here (barring the Arctic, presumably). Summers can be nasty hot, no need to suffer. 

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u/MistahFinch Jun 26 '26

Well yes. They said in their comment both summers and winters are milder in Europe.

It's actually part of the issue. Building to be warm in the winter can make it too hot in the hot summers. Typically Europe got neither or one extreme. So they could design their houses for it

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u/gburgwardt Jun 26 '26

Insulation works both ways. Insulating your house keeps heat out and keeps heat in. You can’t have it keeping heat in in the winter but not out in the summer

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u/snipeytje Jun 26 '26

You consider canada far north, but almost all Canadians live south of the 49th parallel, or very close to it, Paris is at the 49th parallel, there's a lot of populated Europe north of Paris.

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u/boberro Jun 26 '26

Absolutely. I always assumed that NYC is at the same latitude as say... Germany. Not Morocco!

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u/Duckbilling2 Jun 26 '26

NYC is 41° north

so, Rome

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u/thewerdy Jun 26 '26

People also forget how much lower in latitude the US is.

It's pretty wild seeing European (mostly British TBH) tourists in Florida looking burnt to a complete crisp because they decided to wear no sun protection at all. They don't realize that Florida is at the same latitude as the Sahara Desert.

To put the rest of the United States in perspective: Rome, Italy is further north than New York City. Even sunny,warm parts of southern Europe are further north than chilly parts of the United States.

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u/zzazzzz Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

my biggest gripe with this whole discussion where everyone brings up deaths attributed to heat is that these ppl are not at home and dieing on their couch. the vast vast majority of these deaths is ppl going outside into the sun where no AC would have saved them either way.

and the second is how in many places in the EU you cant just install an AC when you want one, regulations around AC specifically and simply adding anything to the outside of your building make this issue hard to talk about with americans.

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u/Western_Gift976 Jun 26 '26

Seattle is the only place I've ever lived you could get by in the summer with an open window and a fan. As I'd grown up in the southern US, I thought that was literally impossible. But even that changed after 10 years there. The last 2 years were some of the hottest on record and people were buying portable ACs.

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u/kimbergo Jun 26 '26

Americans also forget that fact when we think they don’t need sunscreen/it’s safe to tan. If you’re genetically a white European, our skin is not made for these latitudes!

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u/evelynsmee Jun 26 '26

Also during all of this heatwave the sun is up and blasting us (at least UK and Ireland - not so for the Mediterranean) for like 17 hours a day. It is literally barely cooling at night. It's still light at 10pm and back again 4am give or take. I got up at 0430 a couple mornings ago and it was 85% humidity, outside temp 25 "felt like" 29, and by 7-8am it was hitting 30 again and it stayed over that in the high 30s until basically midnight

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u/Ossius Jun 26 '26

I live in FL and I always tell people in europeI'm at the same latitude as bagdad with 80% humidity. It seems to click in their heads a bit more how impossible it is to live here without an AC.

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u/DonaldMerwinElbert Jun 26 '26

Yeah, we like to make fun of your cardboard houses and AC everywhere, but it does make sense in hot, humid places - of which the US has way more than Europe.

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u/ladylondonderry Jun 26 '26

This is how Seattle is. But I still had AC installed when I was modifying my house five years ago, because I knew these heat waves were coming. It's climate change. And it's not slowing down.

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u/dimechimes Jun 26 '26

Another cool Seattle geography fact. Seattle and San Diego have the same average high temperature in June. 71 F

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u/GhostalMedia Jun 26 '26

Seattle is an interesting reference point because the American pacific northwest is famously temperate. The area from San Francisco to Seattle used to have short heatwaves that were manageable with simple fans.

Retrofitting an entire building with AC is quite pricy, so a lot of people either power through the heat or get a portable unit that can cool a bedroom or a room with pets (If the window adaptors work).

Although given that the american west has a lot of migrants from other states and nations, it's not uncommon to hear new residents ask "why the fuck isn't there any AC here?" They're more motivated to find a home with better cooling.

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u/Bacchus1976 Jun 26 '26

As someone who traveled into Europe a bunch in the Summer, bullshit. You did need it, you were being collectively obstinate.

Rome in the summer is horrible. Ditto almost all of Spain. Scotland is obviously fine, but even Paris and Berlin get really sweaty for long stretches.

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u/YoIronFistBro Jun 26 '26

Reddit has a hard time understanding that not all of Europe has the climate and urbanism of the Netherlands.

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u/circuitocorto Jun 26 '26

Never understood people that think of travelling to visit cities during the summer, it's the most unpleasant experience ever regardless of AC or not if you plan to walk and see the city. 

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u/regaphysics Jun 26 '26

Yes you truly did. It just only recently became unbearable.

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u/John_East Jun 26 '26

You’ve never been to Houston

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u/YoIronFistBro Jun 26 '26

We truly did not need AC until recently.

That highly depends on where in Europe you're talking about.

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u/Antiantiai Jun 26 '26

Yall really should get infrastructure in place to handle more hostile climates before the Atlantic currents shift. It's only a matter of time.

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u/TemporaryElk5202 Jul 07 '26

Ive heard of europeans dying of heat for like 20 years now. I think y'all have been stubborn and in denial, just like my mom in upstate ny was until we had a cat almost die of heat.

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u/fllr Jun 26 '26

We haven’t needed AC for 100s of thousands of years. I’m from a place in Brazil that is near the equator, and I’m fine without ACs. When i moved to Dallas it took me a while to realize I was depressed because ACs essentially cut me off from the outside world. The reason why I couldn’t just open the window was because the architecture wasn’t designed for airflow, so opening the window just didn’t feel like a solution. I moved to SF to get away from that culture, and I feel 100% better and love my days with the window open. AC is not a right, it’s a privilege.

0

u/AmericaninShenzhen Jun 26 '26

How many more Europeans need to die before people find a way to get AC? You don’t need a central system, just a single window shaker in the room you spend the most time in so you maybe don’t burn?

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u/Altruistic-Ad3704 Jun 26 '26

All of Canada has air conditioning this argument makes no sense

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u/MaskedBandit77 Jun 26 '26

Most buildings in Canada have AC though. 

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u/DonaldMerwinElbert Jun 26 '26

Canada's construction materials, methods and supply chains are very similar to the US, it's not exactly surprising.

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u/shammy_dammy Jun 26 '26

I was in the UK in 1976.