‘It’s brutal’: Europeans tell of sleepless nights and dizzy spells in heatwave

An ambulance next to the Colosseum in Rome, where temperatures hit 41.8C on Tuesday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

With sea temperatures in the high 20s, open-water swimmer Grabiela Rojas feels it isn’t safe to train in the ocean near Valencia this summer.

Rojas, 35, is instead training by swimming laps in an indoor pool, rather than long distances in the ocean. “It’s way too hot in the water,” she says of Spain’s coastal waters, which have hit new records for this time of year. “There’s a point where you can’t cool down. It’s brutal.”