alt Hacker NewsTo your point about high humidity exacerbating heat, I think it’s relevant to consider wet bulb globe temperatures (WBGT) instead of air temperature. It’s more objective than heat index or the ad hoc “feels like” metrics. Above 30-35C WBGT, humans start dying without intervention.
In the United States at least, days with high WBGT have increased and more places experience them. I hear the same is true also in Europe.
They are increasing in Europe, yes, and unlike the American southwest, any sort of artificial cooling is pretty uncommon in most of Europe.
On the flip side, the cost of cooling is steadily falling due to government incentives to replace oil-fired boilers with heat pumps, and the rapid growth of solar driving down daytime market prices for electricity.