[frollogaston]

I know the average temps have gone up and there have been more extremes, but it's not like it moved 20˚F. They really don't have that level of tolerance in these systems? USA and other countries have been dealing with global warming too, the A/C still works.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/be/brussels/EBB... shows lately it was 97˚ in Brussels. In 2005 it was 93˚ around the same time.

[SiempreViernes]

The affected building was last renovated in the early 1990s, where average max temperature was around 18 degrees.

But even now "normal" average max temperature is only 21.7 degrees[1] and on the 23 of June temperatures reached 36.6 degrees, which is indeed over 20 deg F hotter than the normal maximum temperature for June.

[1]: https://opendata.meteo.be/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#... see INS 21004

[frollogaston]

I get what you mean with the normal max temp being 21.7C, but would expect the AC to be able to handle the peaks, and 33.5C wasn't unheard of ~20 years ago. Not sure what the situation was in the early 1990s, but they had 30 years to figure it out.