Rome, July 17, 2023 – Under the influence of Charon and the heat storm African (hot storm), waiting for the Peak tomorrow Tuesday July 18, we all wonder: have you ever been so hot?
Hot and unbeaten historical records
“Right now they are resisting two unbeaten daily records – clarifies Luca Mercalli, meteorologist and science communicator -. L’August 11, 2021 in Syracuse They registered 48.8 degrees, the highest temperature in the history of Italy but also of Europe. Four years earlier, on August 4, 2017, they had played 43 degrees in Forlì, record for the Po Valley even though that summer was not the hottest”.
Hot: the two unbeaten records
“Monthly Average and Daily Peaks”
Because, warns Mercalli, “the parameters to be analyzed for a piece of data that has a serious foundation must be at least two: the average temperature of the month and the daily maximum. And of course you have to wait until the end of the month to have a precise idea of July”.
The exceptional wave of 2003
At the moment we have a prediction: for Sunday July 23 in different cities you could exceed even by 5 degrees the already hellish temperatures of 2003. So let’s review that series that has remained historic. Starting from Rome. already tomorrow in the capital could reach 42°, 4 more than twenty years ago. Then: the African tongue of fire will be felt particularly in Bariwhich in 2003 recorded a maximum of 38.2 degreestoday that value seems even moderate because we are preparing for 43°. And he risks getting closer to the 2021 Syracuse record, in fact, 47 degrees are expected. The province of Cagliari is also torrid, with possible 46 degrees to decimomannu (in 2003 it was 41.6°).
you die of heat
Mercalli, who speaks on the phone from 1,650 meters up the mountain – “here it’s 24 degrees, I’ve equipped myself” – recalls: “You die of heat. The data of the summer of 2022, the second hottest in the history of Italy after 2003 but the first in Europe, we are told that the dead were 61,000 across the continent, 18,000 in our country. As we’re talking, there are 100 people going to the emergency room and dying. These are almost always the elderly. Maybe a bulletin must be provided, as we did for Covid. We will know the excess mortality this summer in a few months, between November and January”.
Record heat deaths in 2003
In 2003, recalls the scientist, “there were deaths from heat throughout Europe 70,000, in Italy 20 thousand. I am as worried as a doctor who knows very well the existence of diseases. These things We have been saying them for 30 years”.
The 40 degrees of Milan and Paris
“In 2003 for the first time we had 40 in Milan and in paris – recalls Mercalli -. In fact, the 70,000 deaths that year occurred mostly between France, Spain and Italy. After that, heat waves occurred every 4-5 years. From now on they will be more and more frequent. This is the real difference. But in the world we continue without doing anything”.
florence records
Bernardo Gozzini from the CNR confirms: “July 26, 1983 in Florence They registered 42.6 degrees. What is the difference today compared to those years? That after a peak of a few days the temperatures returned to the seasonal average. Now instead with the African anticyclone heat waves will always be longer and more persistent. Florence in this month of July has already had 7 days out of 17 with temperatures above 36°. And this number is likely to increase. It is impressive because the maximum climatic average It’s 32 degrees.”
