Europe heatwave: Italy issues red alerts for 16 cities as temperatures set to hit record highs

Italy issued hot weather red alerts for 16 cities on Sunday as meteorologists warned temperatures will hit record highs across southern Europe in the coming days.

On the Spanish island of La Palma, at least 4,000 people had to be evacuated as a forest fire burned out of control.

Spain, Italy and Greece have been experiencing scorching temperatures for several days, damaging agriculture and leaving tourists seeking shade.

A new anticyclone dubbed Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead, pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday and could lift temperatures above 45 degrees in parts of Italy early this week.

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“We need to prepare for a severe heat storm that, day after day, will blanket the whole country,” Italian weather news service Meteo.it warned on Sunday. “In some places ancient heat records will be broken.”

Italy’s health minister, Orazio Schillaci, said authorities were keeping a close eye on Rome and urged people to take care.

“Going to the Colosseum when it is 43C is not advisable, especially for an elderly person,” he told Il Messaggero newspaper on Sunday, saying people should stay indoors during the hottest part of the day, between 11am and 6pm.

Besides the Italian capital, health alerts were in place from the central city of Florence to Palermo in Sicily and Bari, in the southeast of the peninsula.

Greece closed the ancient Acropolis during the hottest part of the day on Friday to protect tourists.

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In Spain, forecasters warned of the risk of forest fires and said that it would not be easy to sleep during the night, with temperatures unlikely to fall below 25 degrees across the country.

The heatwave will intensify from Monday, with temperatures reaching 44 degrees in the Guadalquivir valley near Seville in the south of the country, forecasters predicted.

Europe’s highest recorded temperature of 48.8 degrees, registered in Sicily two years ago, could be exceeded in the coming days, notably on the Italian island of Sardinia, meteorologists have said.

On the Spanish island of La Palma, a major fire started early on Saturday in El Pinar de Puntagorda, a wooded area in the north of the island in the Canaries. The blaze forced the evacuation of people from the villages of Puntagorda and neighbouring Tijarafe. At least 4,000 people have been evacuated.

At least 13 houses were destroyed as the fire advanced, said Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands. “There has been some resistance by local people to leaving their homes, but I appeal to people to be responsible,” Mr Clavijo told reporters.

The fire has affected more than 46,500 hectares (114,904 acres) of land, authorities said.

In Turkey, coastal cities in the south and southwest on Saturday reached the high 30s and low 40s. The tourism hotspot of Antalya saw a high of 44 degrees.

In the northwestern cities of Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdag, 48 people were taken to emergency departments with symptoms of heat stroke in the past two days, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The heatwave is also taking its toll on water levels in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.

The main water supply at the Omerli Dam reservoir, already at 41 per cent capacity due to low rainfall, was losing 15,422 tonnes of water an hour during the early afternoon, Levent Kurnaz of Bosphorus University’s Centre for Climate Change and Policy Studies told local media.

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Authorities in Poland warned older adults in particular to stay indoors or in the shade and to keep well-hydrated as temperatures reached 35 degrees.

In Warsaw city centre, and in other cities, makeshift hose fountains were arranged to let people and their pets cool off. – Reuters