Record heat: four deaths in Italy. Red dot in 18 cities
As temperatures rise, so does the evaporation from our seas, the real potential energy on which storm systems feed to trigger ruinous hailstorms and strong winds.
4' min read
4' min read
Two people died in Sardinia due to the great heat of these hours. Both were on the beach. A 75-year-old man was crushed by an illness in Budoni, on the north-east coast. The 118 emergency services arrived on the scene with the medical ambulance and the Areus helicopter, but there was nothing they could do. At San Teodoro, on the beach of Lu Impostu, not far from the site of the first tragedy, a 60-year-old man was taken suddenly ill. In this case too, the 118 emergency services were called, which tried in vain to save the man. In Sardinia, the temperatures these days have exceeded 40 degrees.
Temperatures are still scorching in these early days of July, but extreme weather events are on the way in the North. Thunderstorms, hailstorms and strong winds are expected as early as tomorrow in theNorth and parts of the centre. Mattia Gussoni, the meteorologist of 'iLMeteo.it', explains: "As temperatures rise, evaporation from our seas also increases, the real potential energy that thunderstorm systems feed on to trigger reverberating hailstorms and strong winds".
If on tomorrow, Thursday 3 July, no changes are expected compared to today, with red stickers in 18 cities, Friday 4 July there will be 20 cities with red stickers. The cities in question are Ancona, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Campobasso, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina, Milan, Palermo, Perugia, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Verona and Viterbo, to which will be added Pescara and Venice, today and tomorrow in orange. Bari, Catania, Cagliari, Civitavecchia, Messina, Naples and Reggio Calabria remain in yellow.
This intense heat, in addition to causing physical discomfort for people, also affects the temperature of our seas, with values already reaching 27-28°C over most of the basins: we are talking about an anomaly of about 4/5°C above the reference averages.
Meteotrentino reports that from the afternoon-evening, starting in the mountains, stationary showers and thunderstorms are likely to develop: the greatest risk is that of heavy rainfall in a short time over narrow areas and strong gusts of wind, but frequent lightning is also possible and, especially in the mountains, the possibility of hail, generally small in size, cannot be ruled out.
