ATHENS/ROME, July 13 (Portal) – Southern Europe suffered from a severe heatwave on Thursday, with warnings that temperatures could hit record highs on the continent next week, stoking fears about the impact on human health, crops and animals .
Weather warnings were in effect in the Spanish Canary Islands, Italy, Cyprus and Greece. Greek authorities expected temperatures of up to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) and 44 degrees Celsius on Friday or Saturday respectively.
Authorities dispatched an ambulance near the archaeological site of the Acropolis in Athens to provide first aid to tourists stunted by the heatwave. The Italian Meteorological Society has christened the car “Cerberus”.
The European Space Agency (ESA), whose satellites monitor land and sea temperatures, said July could be a hot month.
“Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heatwave, with temperatures on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia forecast to rise to 48 degrees Celsius – possibly the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe,” it said.
The impact of the extreme summer heat was brought into focus this week by a study that found up to 61,000 people may have died in Europe’s sweltering heatwaves last summer.
Governments and employers are under pressure to do more to protect workers exposed to the scorching sun in the recent heatwave, named after the three-headed dog of the underworld in Greek mythology.
There are concerns about the impact on those working outdoors in Italy after a 44-year-old man painting road markings in the northern town of Lodi collapsed and died this week.
“Heat is a silent killer. So that’s the main concern that people’s lives are at risk,” said climate scientist Hannah Cloke, a professor at Reading University in England.
“Of course we should stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere immediately,” Cloke added, warning that some climate changes are already underway.
BURNING EARTH FROM THE BALKANS TO SPAIN
Health authorities have issued a top red alert for the next two days for ten Italian cities, including Rome, Florence, Bologna and Perugia.
In Greece, the government has ordered the suspension of work between 12:00 and 17:00 local time (09:00 – 14:00 GMT) in areas where the risk from heat is very high, and also remote work for employees of the private sector with health problems.
In the Balkans, beachgoers in the Croatian town of Nin slathered themselves in the local healing mud to protect themselves from the sun while 56 firefighters with 20 vehicles and three planes fought to contain a bushfire near the Adriatic town of Sibenik.
Cloke said the current heatwave was caused by hot air rising from the Sahara and then settling over parts of Europe.
Images taken by ESA’s Sentinel-3 satellites on Tuesday measured a land surface temperature of more than 60 degrees Celsius in the western Spanish region of Extremadura.
Weather forecasts and official records are based on the air temperature, which is significantly lower than the temperature recorded on the land surface. In August 2021, the European record temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius was measured in Sicily, which could even be exceeded.
“Next week there will be an even stronger heatwave than this, some values in the central south will be really crazy,” said Luca Lombroso, weather forecaster for the AMPRO group in Italy.
“Between Tuesday and Wednesday we are expected to exceed 40 degrees in Rome and Florence, which is also approaching in the north,” he added.
Animals feel the strain too.
Italian farmer lobby group Coldiretti said milk production fell by about 10% because cows eat less in the heat, drink large amounts of water and produce less milk.
Additional reporting from Aiden Nulty, Michele Kambas, Pietro Lombardi, Emma Pinedo and Alvise Armellini. Text by Keith Weir; Adaptation by Crispian Balmer and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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