2023-07-15 07:38:03
Record temperatures are expected around the world on Saturday, from Europe to China to the United States, forcing authorities to take drastic measures to deal with these heat waves and new fires, a new illustration of global warming climatic.
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From Saturday, Italy, from north to south, is expected to experience a heat wave, with historic temperature records expected in the coming days.
The Ministry of Health had issued a red alert notice on Friday, valid all weekend, for several central cities, from Rome to Bologna, from Florence to Pescara, where the thermometer should reach 36/37 ° C from Sunday (39°C felt), before the peak expected at the start of the week.
In Rome, temperatures might rise to 40°C on Monday, then 42 or 43°C on Tuesday, shattering the previous record of 40.5°C recorded in the capital in August 2007.
The north of the peninsula should not be spared with 38°C expected Tuesday in Milan.
“Ongoing climate change makes this type of situation much more frequent and much more intense compared to the past, including recent ones,” said Claudio Cassardo, meteorologist and professor at the University of Turin, quoted by the daily Il Messaggero on Friday.
Health and medical structures are already mobilized throughout the country to take care of the most fragile people and intervene in nursing homes with the elderly.
Spain, eastern France, Germany and Poland are also facing a large heat wave.
Acropolis closed
In the Mediterranean once more, Greece is also suffering from a heat wave which forced the local authorities, for the second consecutive day, to close the Acropolis of Athens during the hottest hours.
The site classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and stormed by tourists will thus remain closed between 11:30 a.m. local (08:30 GMT) and 5:30 p.m. local (14:30 GMT), announced the Ministry of Culture.
AFP
While temperatures of 40°C to 41°C are expected in Athens, “the true temperature felt […] by the body is considerably higher” at the top of the Acropolis, justified on Friday the Greek Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni.
Visitors have been victims of discomfort in recent days, especially at the top of the Acropolis where they had come to admire the Parthenon.
The Red Cross deployed on Thursday at the foot of the Acropolis to distribute “daily at least 30,000 50 cl bottles of water” and come to the aid of tourists.
Several parks and green spaces in Athens will also remain closed this Saturday, according to a decision by authorities in Attica, the region surrounding Athens.
North Africa is also affected. In Morocco, which has been experiencing a series of heat waves since the beginning of the summer, a red heat alert has been issued for several provinces.
Some regions of China, including the capital Beijing, are also suffering from a strong heat wave.
Parts of eastern Japan are also expected to reach 38-39C on Sunday and Monday, according to the local forecaster.
Getty Images via AFP
On the other side of the globe, the southern United States is roasting under a heat wave: tens of millions of Americans from California to Texas experienced dangerously high temperatures on Friday, which are expected to peak during the weekend.
Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, recorded its 15th straight day above 43 degrees on Friday, according to the US Weather Services (NWS).
California fire
In the Californian desert of Death Valley, American firefighters were fighting very violent fires on Friday.
For climatologist Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles, the mercury there might equal or even exceed the highest air temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, or 54.4°C recorded at the same place in 2020 and 2021, according to several experts.
Smoke from fires in Canada, where more than 500 fires are out of control, had already led to several episodes of heavy air pollution over the northeastern United States in June.
In Greece, where violent forest fires had raged during the summer of 2021 due to an exceptional heat wave, the authorities have warned of the high risk of fire, especially in regions where strong winds are expected to blow.
AFP
Globally, the month of June was the hottest ever measured, according to the European Copernicus and American NASA and NOAA agencies. Then, the first full week of July was in turn the hottest on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Heat is one of the deadliest weather events, the WMO said. Last summer in Europe alone, high temperatures caused more than 60,000 deaths, according to a recent study.
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