Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

HEATWAVE

Italy faces ‘most intense heatwave of all time’ as temperatures soar

Italy was braced for historic high temperatures in the coming days after the health ministry issued a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence.

Published: 15 July 2023 12:17 CEST

Florence

Italy's health ministry issued a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence. Photo by Aram Grigoryan on Unsplash

Italian health authorities on Friday issued severe heat warnings as the sizzling heatwave currently sweeping the nation was expected to get even hotter.

Meteorologists warned people in Italy to prepare for “the most intense heatwave of the summer and also one of the most intense of all time”.

READ ALSO: Italy puts 16 cities on red alert this weekend as heat intensifies

Temperatures were forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Rome by Monday and may even reach 43°C on Tuesday, smashing the city’s heat record of 40.5°C set in August 2007.

The islands of Sicily and Sardinia could see temperatures as high as 48°C, as the European Space Agency warned of “potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe”.

The current European heat record of 48.8°C was set in the Sicilian province of Syracuse in summer 2021.

On Saturday, 15 cities were already on red alert: Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Campobasso, Civitavecchia, Florence, Frosinone, Latina, Messina, Perugia, Pescara, Rieti, Rome, and Viterbo.

These cities will be joined on Saturday by Palermo on Sunday.

READ ALSO: ‘Four to five light meals a day’: Italy’s official advice for surviving the heat

Italy’s highest-level ‘red’ alert means the heat poses a threat to the general population, not just to more vulnerable groups such as young children and the elderly.

All other parts of the country were placed on lower-level yellow or amber alerts over the weekend.

The heatwave began earlier this week, with some parts of Italy already seeing temperatures of above 40°C in recent days.

Greece and regions of France, Germany, Spain and Poland were also baking in searing temperatures.

While it can be difficult to attribute a particular weather event to climate change, scientists insist global warming – linked to dependence on fossil fuels – is behind the multiplication and intensification of heat waves in the world.

The heatwaves come after the EU’s climate monitoring service said the world saw its hottest June on record last month.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

Url copied to clipboard!