Heat spikes and torrential rain, because summer has become so extreme

Climate change has something to do with it, but it would be simplistic to indicate the cause without explaining the ongoing phenomenon

While Italy is hit by the African high pressure bubble of the Cerberus anticyclone, temperatures rise, with expected maximums which exceed seasonal averages by up to 16 degrees.As in the case of Decimomannu, 8 kilometers from Cagliari, where the tropical anticyclone should bring the mercury to reach 48 degrees centigrade.It seems that Cerberus will not leave the Mediterranean until the end of July.Heat waves like the one that is about to hit the country have now become normal, with temperatures often exceeding 35 degrees in June and - as in 2022 - even in May in many cities, when they should normally remain below 30.African high pressure has become increasingly the protagonist of Mediterranean summers, but things have not always been this way.

The weakening of the Azores anticyclone

The increase in temperatures in southern Europe is due to climate change, generated by decades of human activity which have released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing the earth's temperature to increase, up to break your own record for three consecutive days, July 3rd, 4th and 5th.However, it would be reductive to limit ourselves to identifying the cause of the phenomenon without explaining how it works.The amount of energy within the Earth system has increased greatly, making extremes increasingly present, on the one hand the African high pressure and on the other the North Atlantic currents.Until the 1980s, these included the Azores anticyclone, which was born in the central Atlantic and pushed towards Europe, bringing mild and stable temperatures, with occasional extensive thunderstorms.

Record heat and torrential rain

Without this cushion the air masses move much more along the meridians and less along the parallels.African high pressure is pushing much further north than what happened just 30 years ago, and is affecting northern European countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, where several temperature records were broken last year.This explains the record temperatures, but not the torrential rains.As the specialized site illustrates Weather Center, these arise when tropical air - which after passing over the Mediterranean basin is full of humidity - and polar air collide with disastrous effects.Due to the large difference in temperature (i.e. energy), they cause strong thunderstorms and hailstorms, like the one that hit the area in recent days. Milan.When the North Atlantic currents, however, manage to have the upper hand, particularly cool temperatures arrive, with highs that often do not go above 23 degrees.To all of this, this year, the effects of El Niño, a meteorological phenomenon that overheats the currents of the Pacific Ocean, and has not occurred since 2015.The risk is that the summer of 2022 could be remembered in the future as one of the coolest in recent years.