The world has just endured the hottest week ever recorded between July 3-10 this year and meteorologists say there is more to come.
Red weather alerts were issued across Europe this past weekend, with wildfires raging in Croatia, on the Adriatic coast, and in Navarra in Spain. Tourist targets such as the Acropolis in Greece also closed as temperatures soared into the forties.
Now, according to The Guardian, Southern Europe is bracing for a second heat storm in a week, with Italy, Greece and Spain, along with Morocco and other Mediterranean countries, being told temperature records could be broken on Tuesday.
A new anticyclone that pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday could lift temperatures above the record 48.8 degrees Celsius seen in Sicily in August 2021, and follows last week’s Cerberus heatwave.
Greece’s minister of climate crisis and civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said the country should be on alert for fires.
“After the heatwave and the dryness [caused by it], we have the meltemi [strong, dry] winds, which multiply the risk of fire,” Mr Kikilias said.
“And if that wasn’t enough when the winds die down we’ll have a heatwave again… we are in the worst, and most difficult, climatic conditions possible for fires to occur.”
Source: The Guardian.
