Rome, June 29 (IANS) The number of ‘red alert’ cities in Italy continues to increase due to extreme heat. On Monday, 22 cities were put on maximum alert and on Tuesday, the number would rise to 25, Italian news agency Adnkronos reported.
Record heat is not letting go of Italy for now, nor Europe. Even if forecasts speak of thunderstorms and falling temperatures starting from Wednesday, July 1, the heat continues to hit the country,
According to the latest update of the Ministry of Health’s heatwave bulletin, the cities on red alert are Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Campobasso, Civitavecchia, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Venice, Verona, and Viterbo.
The ‘Red Alert’, or level 3, indicates “emergency conditions, with possible negative health effects on healthy and active people and not only on at-risk subgroups such as the elderly, very young children, and people with chronic diseases.”
On Tuesday, Cagliari, Catania, and Trieste will also be put on red alert.
Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary have also reached record temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, as the heatwave that has hit Europe moves eastward. More than 191 million people in the Old Continent have had to face temperatures of at least 35 degrees Celsius, with extreme heat alerts.
In recent days, temperatures have reached values up to +10 degrees Celsius above historical reference averages, even up to 15/20 degrees Celsius in France and Germany, with maximum peaks in recent days of 40 degrees Celsius in Paris.
Since June 21, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 1,300 deaths on the continent are attributable to record heat. “Since June 21, more than 1,300 excess deaths related to high temperatures have been recorded in Europe,” WHO DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X, specifying that the continent is warming fastest on Earth and “twice the global average.”
However, the extreme heatwave that is ‘suffocating’ Europe and Italy has its days numbered, as strong thunderstorms are on their way, which will bring temperatures back to values more in line with the period. The authorities have warned of the risk of intense hailstorms, triggered precisely by the enormous accumulated thermal energy.
The real turning point is expected from Wednesday, when a disturbed front descending from Northern Europe will hit Italy. The frontal clash between these cool and unstable currents at high altitude and the warm, humid air accumulated over the Mediterranean basin could ignite the fuse for the formation of particularly violent thunderstorm cells.
The concrete risk is that of extreme phenomena such as strong hailstorms and downbursts (violent linear wind gusts exiting the thunderstorm). The regions most exposed to this strong wave of bad weather will initially be those of the North Italy, subsequently extending also to parts of the Center-South. After this rapid but intense stormy phase, the subtropical African anticyclone will try to reclaim lost ground with sun and heat ready to return as major protagonists of the Italian summer.
–IANS
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