When Every Region Is Hot at Once: Copenhagen in the Summer of 2026

A continental heatwave chart, zoomed down to one city with DANRAIt's been a brutal summer. Barely a week has gone by in 2026 without another heat warning, another wildfire evacuation, another all-time record somewhere in Western Europe. Heatwaves have been in the news a lot lately, and this year the coverage doesn't feel like a series of one-off events so much as a pattern that's settled in. A fifth wave is currently forecast for the next days. Most disasters have an "outside." A flooded region has a dry region next door that can send pumps, ambulances, and spare capacity. A wildfire has unburned land around it. That outside is where the emergency response comes from. A continental heatwave doesn't have one: when the whole region is hot at once, hospitals, rail networks, power grids, and food systems are all under strain at the same time, and the reserve capacity that would normally come from an unaffected neighbour simply isn't there. The chart below, built by Juan Jesus…