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Heatwave forces Eiffel Tower, Louvre to shorten hours in France
🇲🇽 Mexico /Disasters & Emergencies

Heatwave forces Eiffel Tower, Louvre to shorten hours in France

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Context piece
  • The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum in Paris are reducing their operating hours due to an intense heatwave in France.
  • Temperatures have reached 40°C in some areas, prompting safety measures for visitors and staff.
  • This is the second heatwave in Western Europe this month, intensifying concerns about climate change and extreme weather.

Paris's iconic landmarks, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum, are implementing reduced operating hours as France grapples with an intense heatwave. Temperatures have soared to 40°C in some regions, forcing the operators of the Eiffel Tower and the museum's management to prioritize the safety of their staff and the millions of visitors they receive annually.

The Eiffel Tower, which typically welcomes nearly 7 million visitors each year, has advanced its closing time to 4:00 PM from its usual 12:45 AM. This change means the last entry for visitors will be at 12:15 PM, and for the restaurants at 1:30 PM. The operating company, SETE, stated, "We are forced to adapt to the high temperatures; the priority is the safety of our teams and our visitors." Further reductions are likely on Wednesday.

We are forced to adapt to the high temperatures; the priority is the safety of our teams and our visitors.

— SETEThe operating company of the Eiffel Tower explains the decision to reduce hours.

The Louvre Museum will also close its doors earlier, at 4:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM from Wednesday to Saturday. The museum's management cited the heatwave's impact on "visiting and working conditions." While its historic building has some resilient architectural features, it remains vulnerable and inadequately adapted to climate change. The accumulation of heat is most significant at the end of the day, exacerbated by visitor density.

This situation highlights the growing challenges posed by extreme weather events. It is the second heatwave to affect Western Europe in less than a month. Scientific consensus attributes the intensification of such phenomena, particularly intense heat episodes, to human-induced climate change. Currently, over 90% of the French population is exposed to exceptional heat, and Monday night marked the warmest night ever recorded in France since 1947, with temperatures not dropping below 21.6°C.

its historic building, although naturally resistant in some parts of its architecture, remains fragile and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change.

— Louvre Museum ManagementThe Louvre explains why the heatwave impacts its operations.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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