42 degrees in Rome: blistering heat makes Europe sweat

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With maximum temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius, it was hotter in Rome on Monday than in Palermo in the south of the country. It would get even hotter on Tuesday – a record temperature of 42 degrees could be reached in the Italian capital, the national weather service announced on Monday.

Temperatures of around 38 degrees were expected in Palermo in Sicily on Monday. Rome could see a high of 42 degrees between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesday — that would be a new record for the Italian capital.

“We are from Texas and it gets very hot there. We thought we could escape the heat, but it’s even hotter here,” American tourist Colman Peavy told AFP.

For the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, the thermometer showed 32 degrees Celsius at 10:30 am. That didn’t deter visitors to the sights, though. “I’m from South Africa, we’re used to this heat: sometimes it gets to 50 degrees,” says Jacob Vreunissen, a 60-year-old civil engineer from Cape Town.

“Until 40 to 50 years ago, these phenomena (strong heat waves) were very rare, now we experience increasingly higher temperatures every summer,” says meteorologist Claudio Cassardo of the University of Turin.

Many parts of the world are currently experiencing record high temperatures. According to scientists, climate change is making heat waves more frequent, hotter and longer lasting.

Extreme heat is currently also prevalent in North America, North Africa and Asia. In Morocco, the weather service announced a heat wave with temperatures of up to 47 degrees that would last until Tuesday and also warned of water shortages. In northwest China, up to 52.2 degrees were measured. In Japan, authorities warned people to be careful because of the high temperatures and the risk of heat stroke. (AFP)

Source: Blick