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HEATWAVE

MAP: What are the heat warnings in different Italian cities?

With Italy in the grip of a heatwave this week, what are the official heat level warnings for cities across the country?

Published: 23 August 2023 16:29 CEST

Which Italian cities have the highest-level heat warnings?

Which Italian cities have the highest-level heat warnings? Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP.

Italy is sweltering under its third heatwave of the summer, with temperatures not due to start dropping until the end of Saturday.

To warn citizens of the potential health threat posed by the weather, Italy’s health ministry issues three-day alerts, updated daily, with heat risk levels for the country’s major cities.

A ‘red’ alert is the highest-level warning, followed by orange for medium-high and yellow for a medium-low risk alert.

Green is level zero, signifying no heat risk.

Here’s what the country looks like as of Wednesday, August 23rd:

A total of 17 cities – Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina, Milan, Naples, Perugia, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verona, and Viterbo – have been placed under a ‘red’ warning, with the north of the country and central Tyrrhenian areas particularly suffering from the high temperatures.

A 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.

Campobasso in Campania and Bari in Puglia are ‘orange’ level, while Ancona, Cagliari, Catania, Civitavecchia, Messina, Palermo, Pescara, and Reggio Calabria are ‘yellow’ level – though Ancona is due to become orange from Thursday.

Currently no Italian cities are at the zero-risk green level.

Italy’s official government advice for staying safe in a heatwave includes staying indoors during the afternoon when the heat is most intense, drinking plenty of water, and avoiding exercise during the day.

The current high temperatures are expected to last into the middle of the weekend, when a period of unsettled weather is due to arrive from northern Europe, bringing violent storms, hail and intense winds to the centre-north of the country.

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'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.

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