This time the heat in Italy is really record. According to the experts of ilmeteo.it, the African anticyclone "Lucifer" arriving in our country brings with it temperatures that will be even higher than those of the summer of 2003, a year marked by memorable heat.
Today there are 26 cities with a red sticker, practically all provincial capitals except Genoa, and it will be the same on Friday. The peak will be reached today, but temperatures will remain at these levels until early next.
The African hot bubble directed towards Italy will be able to bring the mercury column up to 41/43° in the Center and in the North, then the infernal heat will also reach the South. Rome will touch 41°, like Florence, Bologna, Padua , Ferrara (here up to 43°), Rovigo and many other cities.
Sardinia, and in the first weekend of August Puglia will be among the most affected regions with peaks of 45/47° in the innermost areas. Only along the coasts will the hot temperatures be mitigated by breezes, as in Liguria.
In Alghero, with 42°C, the record of 40.4°C of August 2003 was broken. In Florence, 41,3°C was reached yesterday, a temperature never reached before in the Tuscan capital after 41,1° C also from the summer of 2003. Absolute records were also broken in Perugia and L'Aquila: 40°C was reached yesterday in the Umbrian capital; while 38°C was reached in the capital of Abruzzo, an extreme temperature for a city 700 meters above sea level. Yesterday's 37°C reached in Potenza, a new absolute record, are no less.
"In this period of scorching heat, an average of 10% more visits are being recorded in Italian emergency rooms, especially in large metropolitan cities, where there are also peaks of 15% increase compared to the 20 million visits per year" , explains to Ansa Maria Pia Ruggieri, national president of the Italian Society of Emergency and Urgency Medicine (Simeu).
