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HEATWAVE

Italy faces ‘most intense heatwave of all time’ as temperatures soar

Italy was braced for historic high temperatures in the coming days after the health ministry issued a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence.

Published: 15 July 2023 12:17 CEST
Florence
Italy's health ministry issued a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence. Photo by Aram Grigoryan on Unsplash

Italian health authorities on Friday issued severe heat warnings as the sizzling heatwave currently sweeping the nation was expected to get even hotter.

Meteorologists warned people in Italy to prepare for “the most intense heatwave of the summer and also one of the most intense of all time”.

READ ALSO: Italy puts 16 cities on red alert this weekend as heat intensifies

Temperatures were forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Rome by Monday and may even reach 43°C on Tuesday, smashing the city’s heat record of 40.5°C set in August 2007.

The islands of Sicily and Sardinia could see temperatures as high as 48°C, as the European Space Agency warned of “potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe”.

The current European heat record of 48.8°C was set in the Sicilian province of Syracuse in summer 2021.

On Saturday, 15 cities were already on red alert: Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Campobasso, Civitavecchia, Florence, Frosinone, Latina, Messina, Perugia, Pescara, Rieti, Rome, and Viterbo.

These cities will be joined on Saturday by Palermo on Sunday.

READ ALSO: ‘Four to five light meals a day’: Italy’s official advice for surviving the heat

Italy’s highest-level ‘red’ alert means the heat poses a threat to the general population, not just to more vulnerable groups such as young children and the elderly.

All other parts of the country were placed on lower-level yellow or amber alerts over the weekend.

The heatwave began earlier this week, with some parts of Italy already seeing temperatures of above 40°C in recent days.

Greece and regions of France, Germany, Spain and Poland were also baking in searing temperatures.

While it can be difficult to attribute a particular weather event to climate change, scientists insist global warming – linked to dependence on fossil fuels – is behind the multiplication and intensification of heat waves in the world.

The heatwaves come after the EU’s climate monitoring service said the world saw its hottest June on record last month.

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DROUGHT

Climate change intensifies Sicily and Sardinia droughts: study

Climate change is intensifying the droughts plaguing the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, making them 1.5 times more likely to occur, according to a study released by the World Weather Attribution research group on Wednesday.

Published: 4 September 2024 09:01 CEST
Climate change intensifies Sicily and Sardinia droughts: study

Hot and dry summers are nothing new on the Italian islands, but both have seen exceptionally low rainfall and persistently high temperatures over the past 12 months, triggering devastating droughts.

Rivers have dried up, crops have withered and drinking water has been rationed in a part of Italy where agriculture and tourism are crucial, forcing both Sicily and Sardinia to declare a state of emergency.

The declarations prompted the interest of the WWA, a network of scientists who have pioneered peer-reviewed methods for assessing the possible role of climate change in specific extreme events.

“Human-caused climate change has increased the likelihood of the droughts driving crippling water shortages and agricultural losses in Sardinia and Sicily by 50 percent,” the study found.

In Sicily, the second half of 2023 was marked by “an unprecedented dry spell, being the most arid period in over a century”, it noted.

READ ALSO: Harvest starts early in Sicily’s vineyards amid crushing drought

But it said a key driver of the drought was not so much a lack of rainfall but the continued high temperatures, which have remained stifling this summer, even at night.

Dried-up lemons lie on the ground in a lemon field in Campobello di Mazara, southwest Sicily, in August 2024

Dried-up lemons lie on the ground in a lemon field in Campobello di Mazara, southwest Sicily, in August 2024. Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

“We conclude that this increase in drought severity is primarily driven by the very strong increase in extreme temperatures due to human-induced climate change,” the study said.

“Searing, long-lasting heat is hitting the islands more frequently, evaporating water from soils, plants and reservoirs,” said Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London.

“Sardinia and Sicily are becoming increasingly arid with climate change,” she said.

“For the farmers and the towns that have endured months of water restrictions, this study is confirmation – climate change is intensifying the droughts.”

READ ALSO: Rainwater dumped into sea in drought-hit Sicily

The study noted that ageing infrastructure was worsening water shortages, calling for better water management to help lessen the impact of future droughts.

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