Up to 37 degrees in Skopje today, an orange warning for the Skopje region. That is the good news. The bad news arrives on Wednesday.

From 5 August, the African heatwave over the Balkans is expected to intensify. In Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mercury could locally reach 45 degrees. Here, in the Skopje valley, the Vardar region and the southeast, daytime temperatures will pass 40.

And the nights will bring no relief. In most cities, minimum temperatures will not fall below 20 degrees. Tropical nights, as the textbooks call them. Nights when the flat does not cool down and the body does not rest - as they actually feel.

The advice we know by heart

The recommendations are the same year after year: avoid going outside between 11 and 5, drink fluids, wear light-coloured loose clothing, look after children, the elderly and the chronically ill.

All of it is correct. And all of it assumes a person has a choice about whether to be outside between 11 and 5. A construction worker does not have that choice. Neither does the courier, nor the vendor standing at the market, nor the municipal worker sweeping at noon.

That is exactly why the question is not whether citizens will follow the recommendations, but whether employers will apply the measures the law already prescribes for outdoor work in extreme temperatures. An orange warning is information. Stopping work during the hottest hours is a decision - and that decision is not the meteorologist's to make.