Temperatures in July alone were 2.26°C above average.
“If 2022 finished now, it would be the hottest year ever," ISAC-CNR's Michele Brunetti told ANSA.
The year that currently holds the record for being Italy's hottest is 2018, when temperatures were 1.58°C above average.
According to the data, precipitation levels so far this year are 46 per cent lower than the average for the 1991-2020 period, making it the driest since 1800.
It is said that northern Italy has been hit hardest, with precipitation levels down by 52 per cent, and both the centre and south of the country registering a drop of 42 per cent.
Italy is currently in the grip of its worst drought in decades and is in the middle of the latest in a long series of heat waves.
The drought and the heat waves, plus the wildfires which have been occurring more frequently and spreading faster due to the dry conditions, are having devastating effects on the nation's agriculture.
Agricultural group, Coldiretti, now estimates the sector’s losses to be higher than six billion euros.
Scientists say that droughts and heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense because of climate change caused by human activity.
