Brits’ holiday heatwave red alert: European cities issue warnings with ‘unbearable’ temperatures

By William On Jul 13, 2023

A deadly heat wave hitting Europe has forced cities to issue red alerts because of ‘unbearable’ temperatures that will continue to rise and could match the continent’s record high of 48.8°C.

British tourists across the Mediterranean are being warned of the life-threatening consequences of the sweltering heat after a Saharan anticyclonic weather system called Cerberus spread north.

Cerberus – named after Dante’s three-headed dog in Greek mythology – will see temperatures in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey rise above 45°C by the end of next week.

The Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily will bear the brunt of the relentless heat BBC claim that the temperature can reach 48.8°C. The previous record of 48.8C was recorded on August 11, 2021 in the Sicilian city of Floridia.

Health Ministry officials have issued a red alert for ten major cities in Italy, including Florence and Rome. A red alert means that the heat is so intense that it poses a health risk to the entire population – not just vulnerable groups such as the elderly and very young children.

A group of people and children play and cool off in the public fountains of Madrid Rio Park on Wednesday in Madrid, Spain

People cool off at the Barcaccia Fountain in Rome, Italy amid a blistering heat wave on Wednesday

People sit on the Baby Plage on the shore of Lake Geneva, in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 11

On Tuesday, the relentless heat wave – which was to last two weeks – claimed its first life after a 44-year-old road sign worker collapsed due to the heat in the Italian city of Lodi, south-east of Milan, as temperatures rose above 40C. The man, whose name has not been released, later died in hospital.

“We are facing an unbearable heat wave,” said Italian politician Nicola Fratoianni. “Dying from the heat is unthinkable – we should take measures to prevent these kinds of tragedies during the hottest hours of the day.”

British tourists have been battling the unrelenting heat this week, with some holidaymakers passing out in Rome as temperatures rose above 40C.

And the relentless heat will increase in the coming days. In the northeastern Spanish city of Zaragoza, the temperature rises to 46 degrees on Tuesday.

In Greece and Turkey – popular tourist spots for Brits – temperatures will rise to a blistering 45C tomorrow and are unlikely to dip below 40C in many areas for the next week.

Temperatures are also expected to reach 42°C on Saturday in Cyprus.

But Italy has been hit hardest by the heatwave, with temperatures reaching 48.8°C in Sicily and Sardinia, according to the BBC. In Rome, temperatures will rise to 41C next week.

Carlo Cacciamani, head of Italy’s national meteorological and climatic bureau, said the unusually warm weather hitting the country is because the Cerberus anticyclone has pushed a colder weather system out of the Azores, which usually affects Italy’s summer weather.

“This is happening more often and means we are seeing temperatures around 40C instead of the normal 30-31C,” Cacciamani said. The times.

In Greece, authorities have banned access to nature reserves and forests to reduce the risk of wildfires, while municipalities opened air-conditioned areas in public buildings for people to take shelter from the heat.

Sunshades will also be installed in Athens at the Acropolis amid reports of tourists passing out at the popular World Heritage site.

The Red Cross will also be on site handing out free water to visitors after the crowds were sweltering with heat as they lined up to visit the Parthenon, part of the ancient citadel known as the Acropolis.

Union representatives for the staff working at the site have argued they should be paid more for working in the sweltering conditions, as Greece’s culture minister, Linda Mendoni, pledged to take special precautions to protect tourists.

Scientists have been relentlessly warning of the harmful effects of climate change. In addition to wilting crops, melting glaciers and an increased risk of wildfires, higher-than-normal temperatures are also causing health problems ranging from heat stroke and dehydration to cardiovascular stress.

A cyclist cools off at a fountain in central Athens, Greece, on Wednesday

Pictured: A heat map showing rising temperatures in Europe for Friday, July 14

A woman cools off in the public fountains of Madrid Rio Park in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday

“How many more summers will we have to go through before we start to convince ourselves that the rise in temperature may not be a sporadic extraordinary event at all, but rather an irreversible process that has, in fact, already begun,” Italian immunologist Mauro Minelli told the Lego newspaper.

Why is the Cerberus anticyclone causing temperatures to rise in Europe?

An anticyclone called Cerberus is driving temperatures above 40C across much of the Mediterranean this week.

The anticyclone — a high-pressure weather system — started in the Sahara and spread to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Cerberus then expanded northward into southern Europe, where it brings sweltering temperatures.

The Red Cross has urged people to monitor the most vulnerable, such as children and the elderly, during the high temperatures.

It also called on people to stay hydrated and watch for signs of heatstroke, including vomiting and fainting.

Meanwhile, the Greek Ministry of Agriculture has issued restrictions on the transport and working hours of animals such as horses and donkeys offering rides in tourist areas during the heat wave.

Working animals should not work between noon and 5pm on days with temperatures between 35-39C in the shade, while they should not work at any time of the day if the temperature exceeds that range.

Scientists have said climate change combined with this year’s emergence of the El Nino weather pattern, which is warming surface waters in the eastern and central Pacific, have fueled record-breaking temperatures.

“The world just had its warmest week on record, according to preliminary data,” the WMO said in a statement, after climate change and the early stages of the El Nino weather pattern caused the warmest June on record.

This year there was already a drought in Spain and severe heat waves in both China and the United States.

Temperatures are breaking records, both on land and in the oceans, with “potentially devastating consequences for ecosystems and the environment,” according to the WMO.

“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to be broken as El Nino develops and these impacts will extend into 2024,” said Christopher Hewitt, WMO director of Climate Services. “This is worrying news for the planet.”

El Nino is a naturally occurring pattern that increases global heat, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rainfall elsewhere.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that ‘the situation we are now witnessing is evidence that climate change is out of control’.

A study published Monday shows that more than 61,000 people died as a result of the heat during Europe’s record summer last year.

Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world, experts say

Europe’s climate monitoring service Copernicus has revealed that last week was probably the hottest since records began in 1940.

And Copernicus scientists have warned that Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, with far-reaching consequences for the continent’s ecosystems and socio-economic fabric.

Last summer was marked by extreme heat, drought and wildfires across Europe — and the rate at which glaciers melted was “unprecedented,” Copernicus said in his report.

European countries – including Great Britain, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain – experienced their warmest summer on record last year.

And it is alarming that last year Europe was about 2.3°C above the pre-industrial average used as the basis for the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The majority of the deaths were in people over the age of 80, and about 63 percent of those who died from the heat were women, according to research published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The world has warmed by an average of nearly 1.2°C since the mid-19th century, causing extreme weather, including more intense heat waves, more severe droughts and storms intensified by rising sea levels.

Oceans absorb most of the heat generated by planet-warming gases, creating heat waves that harm aquatic life, altering weather patterns and disrupting crucial planetary regulatory systems.

In June, global sea surface temperatures reached unprecedented heights. Sea ice in Antarctica reached its lowest level for the month since satellite observations began, at 17 percent below average, breaking the previous record set in June by a significant margin.

While sea surface temperatures normally drop relatively quickly after annual peaks, they remained high this year, with scientists warning that this underlines an underappreciated but serious impact of climate change.

“If the oceans warm up significantly, it will have a knock-on effect on the atmosphere, on sea ice and ice worldwide,” said Michael Sparrow, head of the World Climate Research Program at the WMO.

“There are a lot of concerns from the scientific community and a lot of catching up from the scientific community trying to understand the incredible changes we’re seeing right now.”

El Nino is a naturally occurring pattern that increases global heat, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rainfall elsewhere.

But Mr Sparrow said its effects are likely to be felt more acutely later in the year. “El Nino hasn’t really got going yet,” he said.