Pádraig Hoare: Heatwaves may put end to Irish taking summer breaks in Europe

The climate change crisis is warming Europe twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Perhaps two weeks of rain in Ireland is not so unappealing.

A tourist takes a selfie as a couple sit under an umbrella in front of a temple at the Acropolis hill during a heatwave in Athens, Greece. Picture: AP

Steam rooms are nice places, but you wouldn’t want to stay in one for too long, you wouldn’t sleep there, and you most definitely would not plonk yourself down there for two weeks at a time.

As the anti-cyclone weather pattern Cerberus, named after the feared Hound of Hades in ancient Greek mythology, ominously bears its teeth and snarls its way around continental Europe, raising temperatures into the mid-40s in some countries, perhaps Irish holidaymakers can now feel firsthand exactly what climate change and extreme weather is doing in real time.