An anticyclone – a high pressure area – called Cerberus will push temperatures above 40C across most of Italy on Wednesday, with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – where temperatures can reach 47 to 48C – becoming the hardest hit. It is the first big heatwave in Italy this year, after spring and early summer with its many storms and floods.
The record for the highest temperature in European history was broken on August 11, 2021, when a temperature of 48.8°C was recorded in Foredia, an Italian town in the Sicilian province of Syracuse. This record may be broken in the coming days.
“We know that there will be temperatures above 40 or 45 degrees Celsius,” said Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society. “We can get close to the record. In any case, the levels will be very high.”
The intense heat is expected to last for about two weeks in central and southern Italy, while it will decrease slightly in the north.
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And in Spain – where they are dealing with a second heat wave of the summer – the mercury rose to 44 degrees in some parts of Andalusia on Monday. The Spanish weather service has declared Code Red for this southern region, where the major cities of Seville and Cordoba are located.
It is also incredibly hot in other parts of the country: in the capital, Madrid, it recorded 39 degrees, on the island of Mallorca, the mercury rose to 35 degrees. Therefore, the Red Cross urged people to be more careful and take care of people who are most vulnerable to high temperatures, such as children and the elderly.
In addition to Italy and Spain, France, Germany and Poland are currently experiencing a heat wave.
