A fierce anticyclone named Caronte might send the thermometer to 48C/118F as the Mediterranean heatwave intensifies.
Italy already has been struggling with temperatures reaching highs of 38C over the weekend, but starting from this week Caronte will hit the country, sending the mercury beyond 40C in central and southern regions.
In the meantime, the islands of Sicily and Sardinia possibly hitting a peak of 48C. Temperatures could get close to reaching the European record, set on 11 August 2021, when a high of 48.8C was registered in Floridia, a town in the Sicilian province of Syracuse.
Even though Italians are used to hot summers, they don’t expect to suffer so hot temperatures, in particular, because the consecutive heatwaves struck suddenly, and followed a spring and early summer marked by storms, flooding, and below-average temperatures.
For instance, Stefano Battiato, who is participating in Identity Tree, (a community art project partly aimed at promoting sustainability and set up in the Nicola Calipari gardens in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II), said: «It is slightly cooler here than it is outside the gardens because we have the greenery,» he said. «So, you have to drink lots of water and find places like this … as otherwise you end up staying at home or in an air-conditioned shopping centre. But then using air conditioning is a vicious circle that makes the climate crisis worse. People need to become more aware of how to be more sustainable».