Nadège Poumaere, a dairy farmer in Sercus (Nord department, northern France), explains that "you have to add 10 degrees" to the outside temperature to understand how a cow perceives the heat. Deploying cooling fans and spraying the cows with water, the 45-year-old farmer is pulling out all the stops to keep her 130 animals cool. Although northern France was not placed on heatwave alert this week, temperatures up to 32°C – unprecedented for May in the area – have been recorded.