Europeans Still Wait for Summer Weather

Snowball fights in July. Mulled wine instead of wine coolers. Thermostats set on high. Spring has come and gone, fall approaches - and Europeans are still waiting for summer. Much of the continent awoke to yet another day of chilly temperatures and rain Thursday, adding to the weeks of miserable weather gripping Europe from Scandinavia to parts of the Balkans. On Thursday, the mercury dipped as low as 46 degrees in Stockholm. The Swedes weren't the only ones with the midsummer shivers: Temperatures dropped to 50 in Geneva, 51 in Budapest, 53 in Warsaw and 52 in Copenhagen. And this on a continent that had feared a recurrence of last summer's deadly heat wave. This year's May was fitful, and June promised a summer that could go either way. But except for southern Europe, July has been wet and almost glacial.