Also unlike previous years, most buildings have air conditioning, which is the most important thing for people to have during a heat wave, according to Richard C. Keller, a medical history and bioethics professor at UW-Madison. Keller is currently compiling an account of the heat wave that spread across France and central Europe in 2003. An estimated 70,000 people in Europe ? 15,000 in France alone ? died in early August from temperatures reaching 104 degrees. There is no death toll for this summer?s heat wave in the United States. ?There wasn?t an epidemic of heat wave deaths this summer,? said Keller. ?There is much more air conditioning in the U.S. and it is more widespread.?
Office of Strategic Communication