Unpopular opinion: Summer is overrated

There, I said it. Feel free to disagree…

I often wonder why it is that the weather is labelled 'great' or even 'fabulous' when warm temperatures and sunny skies are forecast. Surely not everyone is thrilled upon such announcements. I mean, do they even consider that what they think of as 'bad’' weather, generally cold and rain, is sometimes just what an introvert needs to get out of a social gathering? I doubt it…

But introverts are of course not the only ones welcoming the occasional rain and dropping of temperatures. The same is true for farmers cultivating their crops or animals relying on moisture to survive. Infants and the elderly also tend to fare better under moderate temperatures. So, despite the apparent social consensus that summer equals good, there are numerous living beings that struggle more with heat than they do with cold.

That is partially due to the fact that for most central Europeans, heat was not an issue for a very long time as summer temperatures tended to be relatively mild and limited to two months a year at best. A trend towards longer and more extreme summers seems to have unfolded in recent years, however.

The summer of 2022, for instance, was not only the second hottest summer in Luxembourg's history, it also had the most summer days (over 25°C) and most heat peaks (over 30°C) on record, according to the 2022 report (FR) of the Administration of Technical Agricultural Services (ASTA) and its meteorological service AgriMeteo. 2022 as a whole went down in history as Luxembourg's hottest ever year and one that also "ended with unseasonably high temperatures" of up to 16°C on 31 December.

If this tendency persists, we – or at the very least I – need to adjust in terms of infrastructure. Air conditioning is not really a thing in the Grand Duchy or any of its neighbouring countries. Only few households and public buildings are equipped to mitigate heat waves. And, truth be told, even the odd fan in a person's bedroom still looks somewhat exotic and out of place in the eyes of a Luxembourger.

The country is only slowly catching up to recent weather trends in terms of urban planning. Extensive concrete patches in our cities and towns quickly become problematic under extreme heat, particularly for the four-legged friends at our side to which we have grown so accustomed. Trees are still a rare sight and most of them are not even close to big enough to provide shade to an entire group. I think the fact that reservations have become necessary to manage visitor numbers at the country's most popular lakes also speaks for itself.

So, to all those hailing the fabulously hot and sunny weather, be careful what you wish for. Personally, I take winter over summer any day. I prefer shivering over sweating, jackets over shorts, moisturiser over sunscreen, and clubs over festivals. Which brings me back to my starting point: summer is overrated.