Extreme weather typically brings a storm of disinformation with it; this [summer 2026] heat wave is no different.
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Spain’s fake air-conditioning ban
Claim: “Spain is banning people from setting their air-con below 27C,” one user wrote in a post viewed more than 800,000 times.
Fact check: False…That claim is a screenshot of a Time Out headline written on August 3, 2022. At the time, the Spanish government temporarily set that rule in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis in 2022.
Is sleeping with a fan on ‘extremely dangerous?’
Claim: “Sleeping with a fan on is extremely dangerous and most people do it every single night,” wrote another user in a post viewed 1.7 million times….
Fact check: Misleading…The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US and the UK’s National Health Service all recommend using an electric fan during extreme heat….While the exact number is debated, researchers agree that at a certain point fans heat you up instead of cooling you down, as the air being moved is hotter than the body’s skin.
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Related on the SLP
Link between heat waves and climate change
Claim: “Who else is tired of normal summer heat being called ‘climate change’ by dramatic fools?” one user wrote on X. This sentiment was echoed across social media in numerous posts.
Fact check: False
The scientific consensus around climate change and heat waves is well-established. Humans have caused the planet to warm by burning fossil fuels — that warming is directly linked to an increase in extreme weather, including heat waves, droughts and wildfires around the world.
This record-breaking heat wave would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, found a rapid study from the World Weather Attribution group.
