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A new heat wave arrives in Italy, with peaks at 40 degrees throughout the center-south

Rome, August 18 (EFE). – A new heat wave keeps five Italian cities on alert today, with peaks of up to 40 degrees lasting at least a week, especially in the center-south, while an alert has been issued for heavy rains in the north of the country, which in 2024 recorded the third hottest year in more than two centuries. On red alert for heat, the highest level, this Friday they are in Florence, Bologna, Perugia, Bolzano and Brescia, all to the north, while in orange are Rome, Latina, Verona, Rieti, Frosinone and Campobasso , in the center and in the south, where temperatures will increase. One of the highest peaks of this new wave is expected tomorrow, Saturday, when nine cities will be on maximum alert: Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Campobasso, Florence, Latina, Perugia, Rieti and Rome, in addition to five in orange : Frosinone, Palermo, Turin, Trieste and Verona, although the heat will continue for at least a week. The anticyclone from North Africa will strengthen throughout the weekend and continue into next week, with a further rise in temperatures of at least 3-4 degrees, starting in Florence, but also affecting the two largest cities in the country, Milan and Rome, which will exceed 40 degrees, according to the meteo.it information service. In the capital, high temperatures are already noticeable among Romans and tourists, who seek shade to cool off, like Vanesa, from Seville, who tells EFE that “the heat has become widespread due to climate change” . “The heat here is very humid and we suffer a lot, although we are very used to it because we reached 45 degrees in the shade on some days” in Seville, explained the Spaniard, who pointed out that “the sources of Rome help a plot.” In addition, authorities have issued an orange weather alert for today in the Lombardy region, whose capital Milan has already been the scene of heavy rains and flooding in the last few months of a year that has been the third warmest since 1800, when the measurements began, with a temperature 0.67 degrees higher than the historical average. The country’s largest association of farmers and ranchers, Coldiretti, which analyzed data from the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (ISAC) for the first seven months of the year, also revealed that in the north of the country, 2023 was the second hottest year, with an average increase of 0.86 degrees. “The record heat in Italy in 2024 was accompanied by an average of almost 11 daily extreme events on the peninsula, including hail, thunderstorms, water pumps, heat waves and windstorms which caused casualties and damage,” Coldiretti said on Thursday. their website. “We are facing a clear trend of tropicalization with a greater frequency of violent protests, seasonal shifts, short and intense rainfall and the rapid transition from heat to bad weather,” he added. 2023 was “marked first by a severe drought which compromised crops in the field, then for a few months by the multiplication of extreme climatic events, abundant rainfall and low temperatures and finally by the torrid heat of July with a temperature average in the upper month of 1.96 degrees, which dried out the soil favoring the outbreak of fires in the fields and in the often abandoned forests. ” (c) EFE Agency