ATHENS/ROME, July 13 (Reuters) – Southern Europe was sweltering under a ferocious heatwave on Thursday, with a warning that temperatures could reach record levels for the continent next week, raising fears about the impact on human health, crops and animals.
Weather alerts were in effect in the Canary Islands of Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Greece, with Greek authorities expecting temperatures to hit 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) or 44 degrees Celsius on Friday or Saturday.
Authorities put an ambulance on standby near the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens, ready to provide first aid to tourists weakened by the heat wave, which the Italian Meteorological Society has dubbed “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 facing a major heat wave with temperatures expected to rise to 48 degrees Celsius on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, potentially the highest temperatures ever recorded in Europe,” it said.
The impact of extreme summer heat has been highlighted by research this week that said up to 61,000 people he may have died in the sweltering heat waves of Europe last summer.
Governments and employers are under pressure to do more to protect workers exposed to the scorching sun in the latest heat wave, named after the three-headed dog from the underworld in Greek mythology.
There are concerns about the impact on outdoor workers in Italy after a 44-year-old man who was painting road markings in the northern city of Lodi collapsed and died this week.
“Heat is a silent killer. So this is the main concern that people’s lives are at risk,” said climate scientist Hannah Cloke, a professor at England’s University of Reading.
“We should certainly stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere immediately,” Cloke added, warning that some changes in the climate were already assured.
HOT LAND FROM THE BALKANS TO SPAIN
Health authorities issued a maximum red alert warning for 10 Italian cities over the next two days, including Rome, Florence, Bologna and Perugia.
In Greece, the government ordered the suspension of work between 12:00 and 17:00 local time (09:00-14:00 GMT) in areas where the risk of heat is very high, and also requested remote work for employees from the private sector with health problems.
In it BalkansBathers from the Croatian town of Nin slathered on their local medicinal mud to protect themselves from the sun as 56 firefighters with 20 vehicles and three planes battled to contain a forest fire near the Adriatic town of Sibenik.
Cloke said the current heat wave was caused by hot air coming from the Sahara, and the air mass then lodged in parts of Europe.
Images captured by ESA’s Sentinel 3 satellites had measured the earth’s surface temperature at more than 60 degrees Celsius in the western Spanish region of Extremadura on Tuesday.
Weather forecasts and official records are based on air temperatures, which are significantly lower than the land surface reading. The European record temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius was recorded in Sicily in August 2021 and that figure could be exceeded.
“Next week there will be a heat wave even stronger than this, some values in the central south will be really strange,” said Luca Lombroso, a meteorologist with the AMPRO group in Italy.
“Between Tuesday and Wednesday in Rome and Florence we will probably exceed 40 degrees, which will also approach from the north,” he added.
The animals are also feeling the strain.
Italian farmer lobby group Coldiretti said milk production dropped by around 10% because cows eat less in the heat, drink large amounts of water and produce less milk.
Additional reporting by Aiden Nulty, Michele Kambas, Pietro Lombardi, Emma Pinedo, and Alvise Armellini Writing by Keith Weir; Edited by Crispian Balmer and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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