NewzLONDON (AP) — Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to consider the death of the summertime state of mind. The season itself is in no danger; climate change, mainly caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal, is warming the weather year-round. Viewed this way, summer-like weather is ascendant.
It’s setting records across the globe — melting Arctic ice, driving droughts, i ntensifyingwildfires, spinning up storms and endangering millions of people who can’t affordair conditioning, time off work or “coolcations.” The heat is so extreme in Asia that Japan has coined a new meteorological category for the danger: kokusho-bi — or “cruelly hot day.” What seems as dead as the grass in England this year is summertime ideal — lazy days, warm nights and escape, however temporary, from classes or parents or work or rules. During the Summer of ’26, people are grieving that freedom. And perhaps, the versions of ourselves we become when our senses tell us that we are safe.
“I mourn for the way summer used to be,” wrote “cli-fi” author Debra Denker in an essay last month recalling leisurely days and July Fourth block parties of the 1960s. “Unless we change the trajectory we’re on, today’s children will never know the gentle and balmy summers of my childhood … I feel sad that they may never know the truly carefree summers that the more privileged among us enjoyed.” In 2026, summertime is a different kind of blast No one needs meteorologists to confirm that this summer is different and our rituals are changing. Downwind from wildfires in North AmericaandEurope, the sky turns orange and the air tastes gritty.
Life under Paris’ famous gray rooftops can be deadly. Nights can be a sullen cycle of sleep, showering and opening a window — only to close it later to block out the urban noise. Everywhere, life-giving sun hurts during much of the day.
Checking the air quality index has become part of the act of stepping outside. We get things done earlier in the day and stay up later at night. And a full day at the beach — or an August holiday in Europe — is more a matter of risk management than it used to be.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans are more likely to say extreme heat has had either a “major impact” or “minor impact” on their travel or vacation plans, electricity bills, their sleep, their family’s outdoor a… I feel sad that they may never know the truly carefree summers that the more privileged among us enjoyed.”In 2026, summertime is a different kind of blastNo one needs meteorologists to confirm that this summer is different and our rituals are changing.
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