Deadly Saharan heatwave sweeps across Europe

Governments across Southern Europe issue warnings amid fears temperatures in Italy could hit a record 48.8°C.

Mathilde from France shelters from the sun near the Colosseum in Rome. Reuters

Southern Europe is braced for record-breaking temperatures through Thursday and Friday as a heatwave sweeps across the region.

With temperatures expected to pass 40°C in large parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey, forecasters believe the heat in Italy could exceed the 48.8°C high that Sicily experienced in August 2021.

The Cerberus heatwave – named after the three-headed dog that guards the gates to the underworld in Dante's Inferno – is caused by anticyclone, an area of high air pressure, originating from the Sahara.

Cities across the Mediterranean have issued red alert warnings. In Italy, where a man died this week, ten cities, including Rome, have imposed emergency measures.

On Tuesday, a man in his forties collapsed and died from heat stroke while painting a zebra crossing in the town of Lodi, near Milan, according to Italian media. “We are facing an unbearable heatwave,” Italian politician Nicola Fratoianni tweeted, advising “all precautions” to be taken to prevent deaths from heat stroke.

Europe's hottest ever temperature of 48.8°C (119.8°F) was recorded near Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily in August 2021.

In Spain, a town in Seville kept its public swimming pools open overnight to help residents cool down, as temperatures reached 33°C and four provinces issued red alerts, according to El Pais. On the Spanish island of Majorca the emergency health hotline has dealt with at least one case of heat stroke every day since May, according to the BBC.

In Greece, public hospitals have been put on standby and the civil protection services have been mobilised, as hot weather is expected to reach 43°C by Friday, and will continue into the next week. The Ministry of Culture discussed the possibility of closing its archaeological sites to visitors.

Large swathes of southern Europe expect temperatures in the low to mid-40s – and possibly higher. The heat is likely to continue into the weekend, and in Prague, the Czech capital, temperatures could reach 36°C (96.8°F) on Saturday, well up from averages of 24°C (75.2°F) in July.

Italian weather forecasters have warned that another heatwave, dubbed Charon after the ferryman who delivered souls into the underworld, will follow next week after a rainstorm in northern Italy. This will push temperatures back up towards 43°C in Rome and a possibly 47°C on the island of Sardinia.

Carlo Cacciamani, head of Italy’s national meteorological and climatology agency, said an anticyclone from the Azores which normally influences summer weather in Italy had been pushed out by a hotter anticyclone from Africa as a result of climate change, according to The Times.

Scientists have warned that summer temperatures are increasing yearly, causing more people to die from heat exhaustion.

More than 61,000 people died in Europe during last summer’s record-breaking heatwave, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health reported earlier this week.

The highest heat related deaths that year were in Italy (18,010), Spain (11,324) and Germany (8,173). The analysis estimated that 63% more women died than men from the heat, and that people living in the Mediterranean region were more likely to die.

“The temperatures recorded in the summer of 2022 cannot have been predicted by following the temperature series of previous years, and show that warming has accelerated over the last decade,” said the report’s co-author Joan Ballester Claramunt.

In 2003 a record 70,000 people died from the heat in Europe. But that heatwave was “exceptional” and the deaths were caused by the lack of public health measures to deal with climate-related emergencies at the time, he added.