Temperatures have been above 40 degrees Celsius, with “peaks of up to 46 and 48 degrees, above any previous historical record,” he added, referring to the series of heatwaves to have gripped central and southern regions in recent weeks, with Sicily particularly badly affected.

Right now, he said the situation concerning power supplies in Sicily “seems to be clearly improving compared to the past few days”, reporting that less than 15,000 consumers were currently without electricity, particularly in the Catania area.

The island region has been plagued by blackouts in the last few days due to a combination of high electricity consumption to power air conditioning units and fans, wildfires and melting of underground cables in the heat.

On fighting the wildfires that have been blazing in several parts of the south, particularly in Sicily and Puglia, Musumeci said that on Tuesday “several critical situations occurred in the operational management of requests for air support, in particular due to the strong ascending and descending air currents”.

“The Sicilian Region’s air fleet was unable to operate in the province of Trapani and Palermo for most of the day due to the lack of the necessary minimum safety conditions,” he said.

“In Calabria, due to the extremely high temperatures on the runway of Lamezia Terme airport, no aircraft could take off for several hours”.

The Italian fire brigade said on Wednesday it had made more than 4000 interventions for bad weather in the last three days, just under 2000 for southern wildfires and just over 2000 for northern storms, which together have killed at least seven people this week. (Photo: ANSA)

As Italy swelters, temperatures across much of the rest of the northern hemisphere are soaring, with July 2023 set to upend previous heat benchmarks, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said after scientists stated it was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record.

The UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service also said in a joint statement it was “extremely likely” July 2023 would break the record.

“We don’t have to wait for the end of the month to know this. Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board,” Guterres said in New York.

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” he told reporters.

“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived”.

The effects of July’s heat have been seen across the world.

Thousands of tourists fled wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes and many more suffered baking heat across the US southwest.

Temperatures in a northwest China township soared as high as 52.2C, breaking a record in the country.

This month’s mean global temperature is projected to be at least 0.2C warmer than July 2019, the former hottest in the 174-year observational record, according to EU data.

Canadian wildfires burned at an unprecedented pace while France, Spain, Germany and Poland sizzled under a major heatwave.

Marine heatwaves have unfolded along coastlines from the United States to Australia, raising concerns about coral reef die-off.

Meanwhile, record rainfall and floods have deluged South Korea, Japan, India and Pakistan.

The planet is in the early stages of an El Nino event, borne of unusually warm waters in the eastern Pacific.

El Nino typically delivers warmer temperatures around the world, doubling down on the warming driven by human-caused climate change, which scientists said this week had played an “absolutely overwhelming” role in July’s extreme heatwaves.

While El Nino’s effects are expected to peak later this year and into 2024, it “has already started to help boost the temperatures,” Haustein said.

July is traditionally the hottest month of the year, and the EU said it did not project August would surpass the record set this month.

ANSA & AAP