The heat wave "invades" southern Europe/ Record temperatures are expected

2023-07-13 18:21:08, Sociale CNA

The heat wave "invades" southern Europe/ Record temperatures are

A heat wave has gripped the southern part of Europe and the northwestern part of Africa, while record temperatures are expected in the coming days.

In parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey, temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

In Italy, extreme weather has been warned in ten cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence. In these areas, it has been estimated that the temperature can reach up to 48.8 degrees Celsius.

On July 11, Italian media reported that a 44-year-old man was painting crosswalks on a street in the town of Lodi, near Milan, before collapsing from the heat. He was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

"We are facing an unbearable heat wave," Italian politician Nicola Fratoianni wrote on Twitter.

"Perhaps it is the moment that, in the hottest hours, all useful measures are taken to avoid tragedies like what happened today in Lodi", she added.

Residents of these areas have been advised to drink at least two liters of water a day and to avoid coffee and alcohol, which are dehydrating liquids.

A group of tourists on the streets of Rome told the Reuters news agency that they were using sprinklers and thermal water to cool themselves.

"We are trying to survive," said Mariko Desso, from the southern city of Bari.

Several tourists have collapsed due to the heat outside the Colosseum in Rome.

The Cerberus heatwave – named by the Italian Meteorological Society after the three-headed monster that appears in Dante's Inferno – is expected to bring extreme temperatures over the next few days.

In Spain, over the last few days, temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius have been recorded and overnight temperatures in most parts of the country have not fallen below 25 degrees Celsius. Parts of Majorca remained up to 37C at 04:00 on Thursday morning.

The regional government of Andalusia has launched a telephone service for people affected by the heat. This service has reported receiving 54,000 calls since it opened in early June.

A satellite image recorded by the EU's Copernicus Sentinel mission revealed that the ground temperature in the Extremadura region of Spain had reached up to 60 degrees Celsius on July 11.

The heat is expected to continue into the weekend.

Europe's hottest ever temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius was recorded near Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily in August 2021.

A study by the ISGlobal Institute says that 61,672 people died in Europe as a result of the heat last year. The fear is that the heat could cause many more deaths this summer.

Experts say periods of extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent and climate change means record temperatures are now normal.

The European Center for Weather Forecasts said that globally, June this year was the hottest ever recorded./ REL