The island of Sicily in Italy is in the grip of a record-breaking heatwave and may have just registered the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe – 48.8C (119.8F).
The current official European record for the highest temperature is currently held by Athens, Greece with 48C registered in 1977.
Regional authorities reported the reading near Syracuse on Wednesday which needs to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The recent heatwave in Italy is being caused by an anticyclone dubbed ‘Lucifer’ and moving up from Africa. Anticyclones are areas of high atmospheric pressure where the air is sinking.
The latest forecast data suggests that Lucifer will head north across mainland Italy, further raising temperatures in cities including the capital Rome.
With the summer season already underway, Italy’s Health Ministry has issued “Red” alerts for extreme heat in several regions and the number of cities that face the highest health risk is expected to rise from 8 to 15 by Friday.
The Mediterranean heatwave, which has seen some countries record their highest temperatures in decades, has led to the spread of wildfires across southern Italy. The country’s worst-hit regions are Sicily, Calabria and Puglia.
The Italian firefighters on Wednesday battled through the night to control blazes burning thousands of acres of land. In Sicily and Calabria, a 12-hour period saw more than 300 operations by firefighters struggling to contain the blaze.
The hot, dry climate that is likely to fuel wildfires runs the risk of increasing with global warming. The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions of greenhouse gases.
At some point, governments may need to intervene with measures such as geoengineering to prevent temperatures rising too steeply.
Geoengineering involves large-scale interventions that shift the climate, generally with an aim of cooling the earth.
Examples of this approach include: spraying seawater thousands of metres into the air to seed the formation of stratocumulus clouds that will deflect sunlight; installing sun-shields or mirrors in space to reflect the sun; or injecting sun-blocking particulates into space.
There is also the potential for “carbon dioxide removal” approaches which seek to directly remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
However, these techniques would have to be implemented on a global scale to have any significant impact on greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.
