That means that only four of the nation’s 27 biggest cities will not be on red alert.
A city is on red alert when the heat is so intense it poses a threat to the whole population, not just vulnerable groups such as the sick, the elderly and small children.
On Tuesday Ancona, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Cagliari, Campobasso, Florence, Frosinone, Latina, Messina, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Rieti, Rome, Trieste, Venice, Verona and Viterbo will be on red alert.
On Wednesday Bari, Catania, Civitavecchia and Turin will join them, while Bolzano drops down to yellow.
Milan and Reggio Calabria will be a notch down on orange alert on Wednesday with Bolzano and Genoa on yellow.
Temperatures are forecast to climb as high as 47 degrees Celsius in areas of southern Sardinia this week, 45 or 46 in Sicily and 45 in the province of Foggia, in Puglia.
In Rome temperatures are expected to climb to 42 or 43 degrees on Tuesday.
The health ministry sent a circular letter to regional governments on Monday with a series of recommendations to manage the impact of the heatwave.
A study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health last week estimated that more than 18,000 people died in Italy due to the intense heat the nation endured last summer. (Photo: ANSA)
These recommendations include setting up a ‘heat code’ at emergency rooms with special, priority procedures for people suffering heat-related health issues.
They also call for the creation of special USCAR units to provide care for people at home, especially for vulnerable groups like the elderly, and prevent ER’s being overwhelmed by people going to casualty with problems that could be solved elsewhere.
The letter tells the regions to boost out-of-hours doctor services, too.
A study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and published in the Nature Medicine journal last week estimated that over 18,000 people died in Italy due to the intense heat the nation endured last summer.
On the Spanish island of La Parma, meanwhile, at least 4000 people had to be evacuated as a forest fire burned out of control, authorities said.
Spain and Greece have also been experiencing scorching temperatures for several days already, damaging agriculture and leaving tourists scurrying for shade.
But a new anticyclone dubbed Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead, pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday and could lift temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius in parts of Italy early this week.
“We need to prepare for a severe heat storm that, day after day, will blanket the whole country,” Italian weather news service Meteo.it warned on Sunday.
“In some places ancient heat records will be broken.”
In Spain, forecasters warned of the risk of forest fires and said that it would not be easy to sleep during the night, with temperatures unlikely to fall below 25 degrees across the country.
The heatwave will intensify this week with temperatures reaching 44 degrees in the Guadalquivir valley near Seville in the south of the country, forecasters predicted.
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.
ANSA
