Italy Braces for Historic Heat Wave: Temperatures Soar to Record-Breaking 48 Degrees in Some Regions

2023-07-16 03:53:07
Italy is preparing for a historic heat wave that might exceed 48 degrees in some regions. (Archyde.com)

A heat wave looms over the Italian peninsula and its islands and several historical temperature records might be broken in the coming days, authorities warned this Saturday.

The Ministry of Health issued a red alert for several cities in the center of the country, including the capital Rome, Bologna, Florence and Pescara, where temperatures between 36-37°C are projected as of this Sunday (with a thermal sensation of 39° C), which will increase until reaching a peak towards the beginning of the week.

In Rome, temperatures can rise to 40°C on Monday and reach 42-43°C on Tuesday, breaking the record of 40.5°C recorded in August 2007.

The island of Sardinia is also on track to mark a new maximum that exceeds 48.8°C reached on August 11, 2021, which is the highest temperature recorded in Europe.

“We are facing a very hot air mass that will invade not only the entire Mediterranean basin, including Spain and Greece, and the Balkan Peninsula, but also a part of northern Europe, up to Germany with Berlin that might reach and exceed 30 degrees. ”, explained the director of the “Lamma-Cnr” meteorological observatory, Bernardo Gozzini.

The Ministry of Health issued a red alert for several cities in the center of the country, including the capital Rome, Bologna, Florence and Pescara, where temperatures between 36-37°C are projected as of this Sunday. (EFE)

This new heat wave will also bring with it tropical nights, with lows above 20 degrees, and high humidity, which will increase the sensation of heat.

For Daniela Zallocco, a 46-year-old Italian employee -who is visiting in the company of her husband and their two children- “the heat is the price to pay if you want to see the beauties of Rome.”

Quentin Martins and Sabrina Sainsard, two 25-year-old French journalists, had hesitated between Rome and Seville for their vacation.

“In the end we decided on Italy thinking that it would be less hot…”, Quentin joked.

Medical devices are already mobilized throughout the country to care for the most fragile people who suffer from dehydration and to intervene in nursing homes.

In 2022, the heat in Europe caused the death of 60,000 people, with 18,000 fatalities in Italy, the most affected country, according to a study published Monday in Nature Medicine.

This new heat wave will also bring with it tropical nights, with lows above 20 degrees, and high humidity, which will increase the sensation of heat. (Archyde.com)

In the capital of Greece, where a temperature of 41 °C was forecast, the authorities decided to keep the archaeological site of the Acropolis closed from noon to 5:30 in the followingnoon.

In the Czech Republic, high temperatures reached new record levels for July 15.

The thermometer marked 38.6 °C in Plzen-Bolevec, in the west of the country, which exceeded the previous record of 36.8 °C for that day recorded in 2007 in Podebrady, east of Prague, according to the Hydrometeorological Institute. Czech.

Temperatures were more moderate in the Spanish Canary Islands, although a forest fire on the island of La Palma caused the preventive eviction of some 500 people.

Keep reading:

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