July above 40 degrees, extreme heat arrives in Italy too

The African anticyclone stopped over Italy:weeks of weather expected with very high temperatures and tropical nights, at least 20 degrees.

• Despite a cool and rainy period in Italy, last June was the hottest month ever globally.
• Now, however, due to the African anticyclone, the scorching heat has landed here too:fiery days and tropical nights for at least two weeks.
• However, extreme events of the opposite direction are not excluded:the Mediterranean is now the real hub of global warming.

If the news, given by European detection system Copernicus, that the one just passed was also the warmest June ever globally, could have caught someone in our latitudes by surprise, thanks to the cool and rainy weather recently, so the skeptics are served.July promises to be a particularly hot month for Italy, with temperatures expected to be well above the climatic averages throughout the country: according to Ilmeteo.it in fact the next few days will be characterized by a scorching climate due to a African anticyclone increasingly powerful.

A July of tropical nights 

From today, Tuesday 9th, the weather will become progressively more stable and thereand temperatures will rise exponentially throughout the country, especially in internal areas and large urban areas.The rise in temperature will be accompanied by an increase in humidity, which will make the climate increasingly muggy as the days go by, with a high probability that the situation will persist at least until the second half of July.

The infamous African anticyclone arriving directly from the Sahara desert, on the weather front, will lead all of Italy to enjoy stable conditions, with clear skies and no precipitation, which will contribute to raising temperatures which will reach 40°C in many areas of the central-south, with the possibility of passing them in the internal areas of the major islands.Zero rain expected, apart from some possible thunderstorms, locally also of strong intensity, in the Alps and Pre-Alps, especially in the west, which could bring a slight coolness from a thermal point of view.This episode, however, will be short-lived and limited mainly to the areas affected by the phenomena.In the rest of Italy, in fact, tropical nights are expected, with minimum temperatures that will not fall below 20°C in many places.among the cities where they will register the most tropical nights, a condition certainly not typical for our latitudes, we find Rome, Naples, Palermo, Catania and Bari.

Risk of extreme weather events

The highest values, according to 3BMeteo, will be recorded in Tavoliere delle Puglie, Matera and the internal areas of eastern Sicily, with peaks even above 40°C.Among the hottest cities we will find Foggia, where from Thursday the threshold of 40°C could easily be reached and even exceeded in the following days.Very hot too Rome And Florence, where from Wednesday it will be possible to reach 37/38°C, Bologna where from Wednesday the column will rise to around 37/38°C.A little less warm in the central-western Po Valley, with highs of up to 34°C on Thursday Milan, 33°C a Turin.Not just hot, though:Particular attention must in fact be paid to the risk of extreme weather events.In recent years, the news has accustomed us to a real extremization of the climate.In particular, the entry of fresh and unstable drafts at high altitude could trigger strong thunderstorms, often accompanied by hail, especially during the afternoon hours.

The causes of this increase in extreme events can be attributed to the increasingly constant and intrusive presence ofAfrican anticyclone.This phenomenon determines an increase in average temperatures and, consequently, greater evaporation of sea water.This evaporation serves as fuel for high-intensity, sometimes extreme, weather events.As a result, we observe an increase in convective precipitation, the number of hours with thunderstorms and the number of hours with violent thunderstorms, often accompanied by large hail.

The climate liveability index speaks clearly

In short, it is good to remember that weather and climate conditions increasingly influence the lives and programs of all of us and in the future fundamental challenges await us in trying to stem or at least be ready to face the problem of climate change:Ilmeteo.it itself in its new Climatic liveability index, created together with Corriere della Sera, it photographs the climate well-being of our country thanks to the collection and analysis of 380 million weather data relating to 108 Italian provincial capital cities, through specific climatic indicators ranging from rainy days to tropical nights, from drought to gusts of wind, passing through extreme events, extreme heat and freezing days.

From the research it clearly emerges that the year 2023 was characterized above all by the great summer heat, in particular under the heading "extreme heat" we find the city of Florence to lead the standings with 34 days in which the maximum temperature exceeded 35°C.In fact, more than one month a year in which the thermal values ​​are more reminiscent of subtropical Indian or Moroccan cities than Tuscany.The great heat often left no respite even during the night.

In this regard, the indicator tropical nights, already seen above, he poses there Sicily as the most affected region with 4 cities among the top in the ranking: Trapani, Palermo, Syracuse and Catania.During these nights, the heat can be very intense and strong physical discomfort can be felt, both by humans and animals.It is no coincidence that Sicily has been in a full-blown drought situation since last February.The "summer breezes" (average knots of wind in the summer season, knot = 1.8 km/h) mitigate the heat and the hottest days:the winner here is the city of Cagliari which, thanks to its fortunate and magnificent position, manages to benefit from this particular wind.

Compared to the drought of 2022, the past year also stood out for a recovery in rainfall:the indicator rainy days poses Gorizia, Massa and Trieste at the top of the ranking among the rainiest cities in Italy.The great absence however, but it is no longer new, was winter and the cold in general.The number of frost days (number of days with minimum temperature below 0°C) however identifies the coldest cities in our country:Cuneo, Bolzano and Belluno.

Data that demonstrates once again how, regardless of the weather contingency of the moment, ongoing climate changes are increasingly having direct consequences on our lives and activities:Italy, and the Mediterranean in general, are a climate hotspot where global warming is occurring at double the speed of the rest of the world:hotter yes, but also more extreme weather events such as drought, floods and hailstorms, which have not been lacking even at the beginning of this mild summer and to which we must also adapt for the near future.