There is no sign of abating, and this latest wave of African heat currently affecting Italy, particularly central and northern Italy, will ultimately last 13-15 days from its onset, with temperatures at least 10 degrees above the seasonal average.
There are 16 cities that have been awarded the red stamp today and tomorrow in the Ministry of Health's heat wave bulletin, that is, the maximum heat risk for the entire population, while on Thursday they will rise to 17.
If Legambiente, after the first stage of the 4th Caravan of Glaciers, speaks of Alpine glaciers in full hemorrhage, a victim has been recorded in the Swiss Alps due to the detachment of a large block of ice.
Our thoughts also go to the 2022 episode on the Marmolada, which, according to Cnr researcher Marta Chiarle, cannot be imagined to be saved by covering it with tarpaulins. First, she claims, "we must defend the climate".
In essence, the Nerone anticyclone brings heat to practically all of Italy and the duration of the blaze, at the end of the event, will be about 13-15 days. In practice "we will have - says Sanò - a real 'heat storm', with as many as 7 days of heat and scorching temperatures".
A Heat Storm, as defined by the California Weather Service, occurs when highs of at least 38°C persist for more than 3 days over a very large area. As for the forecast, the weather will be very hot and dry in the Center-North until Sunday.
Possibility of thunderstorms in the South due to a low pressure area between Sicily and Libya: precisely between Sicily, Calabria and Campania there could be thunderstorm disturbances in the afternoon that will keep temperatures in the South decidedly lower than in the Center-North.
The record heat has caused, as expected, an increase in the number of cities with red labels. Among the 27 urban centers considered, today and tomorrow Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina Milan Naples, Perugia, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Trieste and Verona will receive it. Palermo will also receive a red label, but only today, while on Thursday Venice and Viterbo will also receive it.
If we take the cities of Florence, Milan and Rome as a reference, in the Tuscan capital we have to go back to 2011 to have 39°C in this period. Value that for iLMeteo.it could be reached by Friday. In Rome-Ciampino 38-39°C were reached in 2000 and 2007.
By Sunday this temperature could be reached again. Finally in Milan-Linate 37°C were reached in 2012. And it is very hot especially at high altitude.
The news of the new Italian record for the freezing level reached at the Novara Cameri radiosounding station at 5.328 meters "testifies to the unprecedented increase in temperatures and the inexorable fate of our Alpine glaciers", underlines Vanda Bonardo, national head of the Alps for Legambiente and president of Cipra Italia.
The Rutor glacier in the Aosta Valley is also in crisis: it has revealed a loss of surface area of about 4 square kilometers from 1865 to today, of which 1,5 lost in the last fifty years alone. Always making a comparison with the situation of the early Seventies, the front of the right lobe has retreated by 650 meters while that of the left lobe by 750 meters.
The heatwave has also had negative repercussions on the French side of Mont Blanc, where the risk of rockfall on the normal route is high, especially along the Goûter canal. The Haute-Savoie prefecture is “appealing to the responsibility” of climbers and “inviting, if possible, to postpone the ascent”.
But these scorching days can also have positive aspects, at least for the refuges where hikers have returned to the mountains. At Gino Biasi al Bicchiere, in Alto Adige, this morning at 7 am at 3.195 meters above sea level the thermometer read 10 degrees.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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