Next week will remain oppressively hot as the severe weather shows no signs of letting up. High temperatures have been present in Italy, Spain, and Greece for several days now. For the weekend, the Italian health ministry has issued a red alert for 16 cities: Rome, Bologna, and Florence. According to Italian media, the heatwave is predicted to last far into the following week, with Sardinia perhaps reaching 48C (118.4F).
A temperature of that magnitude, however, would not reach the 48.8C (119.8F) European record high that was measured in Sicily in August 2021. The “epicenter” of next week’s heatwave, which weather forecasters have named Charon after the ferryman who carried souls to the underworld in Greek mythology, will be in Sardinia, according to the Italian weather agency.
Between July 19 and July 23, temperatures will peak not just in Italy but also in Greece, Turkey, and the Balkans. Several regional heat records may be broken during those days, according to Italian meteorologist and climate specialist Giulio Betti, who spoke to the BBC.
Anyone in the areas covered by Saturday’s red alerts has been urged by the Italian government to stay out of direct sunlight between 11:00 and 18:00 and to take extra precautions with the elderly and weak.
difficult has become “nightmarish” to navigate Rome, according to tour guide Felicity Hinton, 59, who told the BBC that the city’s high temperatures and crowds had made it difficult. Rome is often hot, but this heat wave has persisted for a lot longer than usual, she claimed.
“My fellow tour guide pals and I are under a lot of stress. On tours, people have been passing out, and ambulances are everywhere.
Elena, a 62-year-old native of Rome, told the BBC that since about 2003, summer temperatures had undergone a “marked change” and have been rising exponentially ever since. Greece, meanwhile, recently had temperatures of at least 40C (104F). In order to safeguard visitors, the Acropolis in Athens, which is the most well-known tourist destination in the nation, was closed on Friday and Saturday during the peak tourist season.
A forest fire that started on La Palma on Saturday morning in Spain’s Canary Islands prompted the evacuation of at least 2,000 people and has already consumed 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) of land. At least 12 homes have been destroyed, according to Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands regional administration, who also blamed “the wind, the climate conditions, as well as the heatwave that we are living through” for the fire’s rapid growth.
Along with aid from the neighboring island of Tenerife, the Spanish army sent 150 of its firefighters to assist with attempts to put out the fire.
Although some nations, including Serbia and Hungary, are already experiencing daily temperatures hovering above 35C (95F), the heatwave is expected to reach the Balkans later next week. Natural weather cycles include hot spells, but due to global warming, they are happening more frequently, getting more desirable, and lasting longer.
According to Mr. Betti, “Heatwaves are among the most tangible, evident, documented, and clearly observable signs of climate change” since they occur more frequently and with greater severity each year.
“Summers in Europe have recently been considerably, much hotter… The fact that there are no longer any summers without violent and protracted heatwaves should worry us. “Normal” summers are no longer common.
According to the EU’s climate monitoring program Copernicus, last month was the warmest June ever. There is currently a “collection of heatwaves” in the northern hemisphere, according to Paolo Ceppi, an Imperial College London lecturer in climate science.
The BBC quoted him as saying, “We have this event in southern Europe, but at the same time, we’re having another significant heatwave in the southern US.” “Recently, there were heatwaves in places like China, India, and South Asia. And regrettably, this is not unexpected.
The probabilities are moving in favor of more severe extreme events and fewer cold extreme events because the baseline temperatures are rising.
