In hot Ell, the hydrangeas have their own parasol

At the shops in the Sebastiaanstraat in Ell, a customer occasionally shows up on Tuesday afternoon. Further on, it is extinct and the only activity is the delivery vans of the postal and delivery services. The terrace of eatery De Prairie in the village of almost fifteen hundred inhabitants in Central Limburg is ready to receive guests. But they don’t come. No one sits here for pleasure now.

Jan Verstappen is busy at the entrance to his house. In work trousers and a white shirt, he goes up and down the kitchen stairs to hang a construction of slats, broomsticks, cloths, tarpaulin and electric wire in the gutters of his garage. The creation may not look very professional “but it must also be easy to remove”. And more importantly, it does what it’s supposed to do: “Keep the heat out. Without a cover, it gets very hot in the garage otherwise.”

In the house, Verstappen keeps it nice and cool. He has made his house, dating from 1950, more energy-efficient in phases. “Something every five years. First new doors that prevented drafts, then double glazing, wall insulation, a new roof, solar collectors. I once used four thousand cubic meters of gas a year. Now, with an extension, a thousand more.”

Climate change does not concern Verstappen very much. “I like to be warm. Likes to be outside. My grandson too. He slept outside last night.”

Spraying Farmer

In extreme weather, Ell regularly makes the news. The KNMI has 34 automatic weather stations on the Dutch mainland. The highest or lowest temperatures are regularly measured at the three in Limburg, thanks to their location inland. During the sustained heat of 2019, a fanatically spraying farmer had a moderating effect on the measured values in El. The air around the weather station cooled slightly. Then the provisional Dutch record was measured in Gilze-Rijen in Brabant: 40.7 degrees Celsius.

Jan Heijkens comes out at the supermarket in Ell. In Bermuda and polo, he pulls his shopping trolley behind him. “Yes, it’s hot, but it’s fine for those few days, if you adapt to the conditions.”

But the general picture of climate change is worrying for the recently retired architect. “For ourselves, but certainly if you think about the future for the children and grandchildren.”

Also read: How do you cool the heat island in The Hague?

The municipality of Leudal, to which Ell falls, calls the environment a spearhead. All residents received a sustainability newspaper. “For the future that starts today” and “#everyone is doing what”, were the headlines above the alderman’s foreword. The municipality wants to plant an additional 20,000 trees. The 55-hectare Heijkersbroek nature reserve has already been redeveloped so that it retains water longer than before. But Heijkens also sees “a lot of cries for the stage. Thinking along could be better: seeing the possibilities instead of the impossibilities. Many houses here are somewhat dated. There are virtually no large housing projects where you can make a major improvement in one go. If people want to make their homes more energy-efficient or even energy-neutral, in many cases it costs capital.”

Bart Niessen has also just done some shopping. He is happy that he is on vacation. He normally picks up trash in Ell and six other villages. No fun with this weather. The truck does have air conditioning, but it does not turn on because of the continuous entry and exit.

snippet of shadow

His days off at home in his apartment opposite the church are no fun either because of the tropical temperatures. “I keep everything closed, the awning down and go to the internet with the fan on. I don’t really like this weather.”

But Niessen is not concerned about climate change. “That is of little use. It doesn’t help.”

Outside the village, cows seek refreshment in the shred of shade that a grove of trees has to offer. In the garden in front of a farm, blooming hydrangeas have been protected by a parasol on this exceptionally warm day.

A good distance south of the built-up area of ​​Ell is the weather station between the meadows. A tractor leaves a trail of dust on the dirt road that runs right past it. Sprinklers protect part of the fields from the worst drought.

The highest temperatures are not measured here on Tuesday. Ell remains just below 36 degrees. The weather station near Maastricht reports 39.4 degrees Celsius at ten past five in the afternoon. This makes it the warmest July 19 ever measured in the Netherlands.