The report by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) and the National System for Environmental Protection said that the average temperature was more than one degree Celsius above the level of 2021 and 0.58 degrees higher than the previous record set in 2022.
It added that it was 1.23 degrees higher than the average for 1991-2020.
The report, entitled Climate in Italy in 2022, said the temperature was above average every month last year except in March and April.
It said 2022 was the least rainy year since 1961, the most recent year there is complete data for.
It said rainfall was 22 per cent down with respect to the average for the 1991-2020 period.
Precipitation was a staggering 39 per cent below normal between January and July.
“The anomalies were most pronounced in the North (-33 per cent), followed by the Center (-15 per cent) and the South and Islands (-13 per cent),” ISPRA said.
Not unexpectedly, but of no less concern, the surface temperatures of the seas also set a record: the annual average is +1 degree above the 1990-2020 average and the average anomalies were positive in all months except April (-0.18 degrees), with the maximum positive deviations from the normal values in June and July (+2.11 degrees both).
The long drought that Italy endured last year and for much of the first half of 2023 has caused massive problems for agriculture, especially in the north of the country.
Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and more intense.
ANSA
