Rome | AFP
A heat wave is looming over Italy and its islands. Several historic temperature records could be broken in the coming days, authorities warned this Saturday (15).
The local Ministry of Health has issued a red alert for several cities in the center of the country, including the capital Rome, Bologna, Florence and Pescara, where temperatures are forecast to range between 36C and 37C from Sunday (16), with a feeling of warmth reaching up to can reach 39°C.
Temperatures in Rome can soar to 40°C on Monday (17) and reach 43°C on Tuesday (18), breaking the August 2007 record of 40.5°C.
The island of Sardinia is also on track to set a new high, surpassing the 48.8ºC reached on August 11, 2021, the highest temperature recorded in Europe.
Medical teams are deployed across the country to care for the dehydrated and intervene in nursing homes.
According to a study published this week in the journal Nature Medicine, the heat in Europe caused the deaths of 60,000 people in 2022, with 18,000 victims in Italy, the hardesthit country. Last year’s summer was the hottest on record in the continent’s history.
The figure is close to that of one of Europe’s worst heat waves, when high temperatures killed 70,000 people in 2003.
Also this week, the European Parliament approved a robust plan to protect the environment and fight the climate crisis. The project is part of the socalled European Green Deal, which aims to establish the world’s most ambitious biodiversity target and make the European Union a global reference.
The plan sets binding targets for species protection. It also provides for the restoration of at least 20% of the degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the European Union by 2030.