‘Heat storm’ hits Italy, record temperatures expected this week

On Sunday, the number of major Italian cities that the health ministry has put on red alert climbed from 15 to 16.

Red alert is signalled when the heat is so intense it poses a threat to the whole population, not just groups such as the elderly, the clinically vulnerable and very young children, 

The cities are Bologna, Campobasso, Florence, Frosinone, Latina, Perugia, Pescara, Rieti, Rome, Viterbo. Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Civitavecchia, Messina and Palermo, Sunday’s new entry.

Temperatures are forecast to climb as high as 47 degrees Celsius in areas of southern Sardinia, 45 or 46  in Sicily and 45 degrees in the province of Foggia, in Puglia.

In Rome, which The Times has called “The Infernal City” because of the heat it is suffering, temperatures are expected to climb to 42 or 43 on Tuesday.

iLMeteo.it founder Antonio Sanò said temperatures of over 30 degrees may last until up to midnight in some cases.

Sleeping is a problem, with temperatures not going below 20 degrees during the night.

Health Minister Orazio Schillaci, meanwhile, has reiterated his call for the public to take the necessary precautions and said the government may impose restrictions to reduce risks.

In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were changed for the public sector and many businesses to avoid the midday heat, while air-conditioned areas were opened to the public. (Photo: ANSA)

When asked about Athens’ decision to close the Acropolis in the hottest hours of the day, Schillaci told daily newspaper Il Messaggero that “we are monitoring the situation hour by hour, following the development of the temperatures for the coming days.

“If necessary, we will consider taking some measures with the other competent ministers,” he added.

“Big gatherings in open-air places with particularly high temperatures should be discouraged in the hottest hours of the day.

“It is not advisable to go to the Colosseum when it’s 43 degrees, above all for an elderly person”.

He said it was necessary for people to follow the health ministry’s heat guidelines to stop the nation’s hospitals being overwhelmed.

“You can protect yourself against the heat in a major way by drinking lots of water, opting for a diet based on vegetables and fresh fruit and avoiding excessive consumption of fatty foods and alcohol,” Schillaci said.

“Special attentions should be paid to the most fragile, the elderly and children.”

On Thursday, the European Space Agency, which monitors and analyses weather patterns thanks to data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission, said air temperatures could climb to 48 degrees on Sicily and Sardinia in the coming days, potentially reaching the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.

The highest temperature in European history was set on August 11, 2021 when a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius was recorded in Floridia, a town in the Sicilian province of Syracuse.

A study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and published in the Nature Medicine journal this week estimated that more than 18,000 people died in Italy due to the intense heat the nation endured last summer.

Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heat waves, drought, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and more intense.

Elsewhere in Europe, tourists in Athens huddled under mist machines and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit ice blocks as southern Europeans suffered through a heat wave that was projected to get much worse.

And in the US, more than a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings as blistering weather continued across the southwest and California.

Temperatures across the Mediterranean were forecast to reach as high as 45 degrees from Friday after a high-pressure system dubbed Cerberus crossed the sea from north Africa.

In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were changed for the public sector and many businesses to avoid the midday heat, while air-conditioned areas were opened to the public.

Cerberus is being tracked by the European Space Agency, which warned the heat wave will also be felt in parts of northern Europe.

In the Arctic, a record high temperature of 28.8 degrees was measured at Slettness Fyr on the northern tip of Norway, Norwegian meteorologists said on Thursday.

This tops a previous record from July 1964 when the thermometer reached 27.6 degrees.

The United Nation’s World Meteorological Organisation on Monday said global temperatures recorded in early July were among the hottest on record.

As Spain’s politicians fret about how the high temperatures might affect turnout in a general election this month, animals in Madrid Zoo were being treated this week to frozen food to cool off amid the sweltering heat.

Zookeepers fed pandas and bears with watermelon ice blocks, seals with frozen sardines and lions with frozen buckets of meat.

In central and southern California, highs in inland desert areas were forecast to top 48.8 degrees during the day, and remain above 26.6 degrees overnight, offering little relief.

Officials prepared to repurpose public libraries, senior centres and police department lobbies as cooling centres, especially in desert areas.

In Arizona Phoenix hit 43 degrees for the 14th consecutive day on Thursday, putting it on track for a possible new record next week. The longest measured stretch of such temperatures for the city is 18 days, recorded in 1974.

ANSA