Overview Logo
Article Main Image

Record heat in Italy, the latest news live | Today temperatures up to 40 degrees. 10-year-old girl dies in Versailles: "Heat stroke". Sickness on the beach: two dead in Sardinia

Wednesday, July 2


Alternative Takes

The World's Current Take

Political and Institutional Response


Temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees in the centre

(by Alessio Ribaudo) Europe is cooking on high heat and the past June will be one of the hottest months ever. The Copernicus Extreme Forecast Index has dyed its map purple: 10 to 14 degrees more in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. 

In Italy, dozens of cities have exceeded 40; while emergency rooms are struggling and fires are worrying. The next few days promise no respite, at least until the weekend. The experts at iLMeteo.it warn: today our cities will be scorching hot with peaks of 39 degrees in Tuscany and Lazio; while the South will remain stable above 33. Tomorrow the mercury will rise even higher: 40 degrees in Tuscany, 39 between Umbria and Lazio, 38 in Milan and Venice. 

The freezing level will be at 4,800 meters with tropical night humidity and Lake Garda at 27 degrees. Over the weekend, the entry of unstable currents at high altitude will destabilize the atmosphere considerably, causing disastrous storm fronts on the Alps and Prealps. This extreme heat — explains Antonello Pasini, climate physicist and first researcher at the CNR — is caused by the African anticyclone which, due to global warming of anthropogenic origin, has replaced the Azores anticyclone. The same one that Italians learned about many years ago thanks to Colonel Bernacca.

In practice, the circulation of currents in the Mediterranean has been turned upside down. The Azores anticyclone was more stable, mild and protected Italy until mid-August both from disturbances and from the ferocious African heat that also brings the feared drought. Not only that: The problem is that these anticyclones do not always manage to remain stable and when they give way, as in these days in the North, cooler currents slip in. The contact between warm and humid air generates a violent thermal contrast causing extreme phenomena, sometimes tragic, like in Bardonecchia. 

And yesterday Natalia Alonso Cano, of the UN Agency for Disaster Risk Reduction, warned: Between 2001 and 2020, direct damage from natural disasters exceeds 186 billion euros per year. The Mediterranean, Pasini insists, has overheated and is now a climate punching bag because it releases much more water vapor and heat. 

This has important consequences: Water vapor is the raw material with which clouds and rain are formed and the heat released in excess cannot be retained because the atmosphere follows the laws of thermodynamics. And so it releases it with extreme rains and strong winds. Meanwhile, cities are suffocating. Rome today has the microclimate of Tunis 30 years ago—the climatologist continues —. Asphalt and concrete create heat islands: they absorb it and release it, becoming warmer than the surrounding countryside. 

Pasini is clear: We need to rethink our cities with more greenery, trees and permeable surfaces. Greenery mitigates the heat and, in the event of heavy rain, prevents the water from flowing on the surface like an overwhelming river. And we need to pay attention to those who have no defenses: We must think of the elderly, children and the most fragile with climate"refuges" in the city where they can find relief. Also because the forecast models are not encouraging: It will be a hotter summer than usual but if the African anticyclone were to give way, even for just a few hours, we must expect extreme events, especially in the Center-North: already between Sunday and Tuesday.

Get the full experience in the app

Scroll the Globe, Pick a Country, See their News

International stories that aren't found anywhere else.

Global News, Local Perspective

50 countries, 150 news sites, 500 articles a day.

Don’t Miss what Gets Missed

Explore international stories overlooked by American media.

Unfiltered, Uncensored, Unbiased

Articles are translated to English so you get a unique view into their world.

Apple App Store Badge